Connected on 2011-06-02 12:15:00
from Cook, Illinois, United States
- 11:52 am
- Bugscope Teamhello Hanc!
- Bugscope TeamWe are getting ready to make presets for today's session
- Bugscope Teamas soon as the 'scope reaches vacuum
- 11:57 am
- Guestwe are checking out the display on our computer for our session in two weeks
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope TeamHello MAK!
- Bugscope Teamwe're working on the presets
- TeacherHi!
- TeacherI was planning on sending our bugs that we collected, but I think I waited too long after they had died...
- TeacherThe kids should be coming in about 15 minutes!
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- 12:02 pm
- Bugscope TeamCate is driving and I am typing the names when she finds nice places on the sample stub.
- 12:07 pm
- 12:12 pm
- 12:19 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll!
- TeacherWe are too!
- Bugscope Teamalright you are the Supreme Rulers!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a super tiny ant that I caught in my kitchen
- 12:24 pm
- TeacherElizabeth wants to know what's in the mouth
Bugscope Teamthose are the palps -- the four little 'feelers' that help the ant taste and manipulate its food
- Bugscope Teamants often look like they have a whole 'nother insect in their mouth
- TeacherAngela wants to know what's the big thing in the center
Bugscope Teamthe hinged jaws are to the upper middle of the picture. it has a couple sets of palps that are like feelers as well
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the mandibles, curved around the head -- they open from the sides
- Bugscope Teamit also has long legs that are kind of tucked under its head
- Bugscope Teamthe jaws/mandibles are forked at the end, as you can see on the one on the left
- Bugscope Teami should say she. Almost all ants, bees, and wasps you see are females. They do most of the work in the colonies
Bugscope Teamthat's right -- there are few males, and they don't do much, but they can fly
- Teacher:)
- TeacherElizabeth wants to know why the boys don't do the work.
Bugscope TeamI think it's pretty much normal, isn't it?
- Bugscope Teamin the ant world, and with some other kinds of insects, the males do not do much except breed
- Bugscope Teamthe bubbly background is carbon tape the insects are sitting on
- Bugscope Teamwith mosquitoes, the females are the ones that bite; the males only drink nectar, like from flowers
- TeacherAshley wants to know why the abdomen has layers.
Bugscope Teamthat is so it can flex it. Like how we have joints in our legs and arms. They have all their joints on the outside because of the exoskeleton
- 12:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamfemale mosquitoes need to have the extra protein from their blood meal in order to successfully lay their eggs
- TeacherElizabeth wants to know what we're looking at.
Bugscope Teamthat is one of the six claws of the ant
- Bugscope Teamit may be surprising to see that so many insects have tiny claws
- Bugscope Teaminsects all have six legs (as adults); a thorax, which the legs are attached to; a head; and an abdomen
- Bugscope Teamant people call the ant abdomen a 'gaster'
- Bugscope Teamthis is a leafhopper
- Bugscope Teamit has a bullet-shaped head that resembles the head of the backswimmer
- TeacherWhat's that thing sticking out where his eye would be?
Bugscope Teamthose are the antennae. The eyes here are compound eyes and are the bumpy areas on the sides of the head
- 12:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the compound eye very clearly
- Bugscope Teamthe antenna is broken
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at the ommatidia -- the individual facets of the compound eye
- TeacherWhat different shapes are in compound eyes?
Bugscope Teammost are hexagonal to fit the curvature of the eye best. But there is some other material sticking to the eye and those are the brochosomes which are nanoparticles
- Bugscope Teamsee the tiny stuff that looks like sand, between the ommatidia?
- Bugscope Teamleafhoppers are different from other insects in producing the nanoparticles called brochosomes that Cate mentioned
- Bugscope Teamleafhoppers are true bugs
- 12:39 pm
- TeacherIs it related to a grasshopper?
Bugscope Teamthey are not from the same family as grasshoppers; they only share part of the name
- Guestwhat is the function of the brochosomes?
Bugscope Teamit is thought the leafhoppers use them to coat their eggs so they can keep them moist
- TeacherIs this a broken antenna?
Bugscope Teamyes it looks broken
- Bugscope Teamthe leafhopper family is Cicadellidae; one of the grasshopper families is called Acrididae
- TeacherAre those wings under his legs?
Bugscope Teamyes they are!
- Bugscope Teamthe wings are folded
- TeacherAre the wings thick or thin?
Bugscope Teamthey are thicker than many other types of wings
- 12:44 pm
- TeacherWhat is a butterfly wing scale?
Bugscope Teamthere are scales all over a butterfly or moth. These are just a few from a small portion of the wing of a butterfly
- TeacherHow high can they fly with their wings?
Bugscope TeamI don't think they fly very well -- just in little bursts, to get away from predators, for example
Bugscope Teamthey can use the wind, especially from storms, to help transport them long distances
- Bugscope Teambutterflies can shed a few scales and never notice
- Bugscope Teamwing scales, and scales in general, serve in part to help insects get out of webs they might've fallen or flown into
- TeacherAre each of the scales different colors?
Bugscope Teamgroups of the scales are different. They will either have different types of pigment granules, or the structure will look slightly different so that light refracts off them differently
- Bugscope Teamthe scales are what feel like fine powder to us when we touch a butterfly or a moth's wings
- Bugscope Teamso yes as Cate says, scales are responsible for the color we see on some wings; and some of those colors come from pigments. some of the color comes from the width and shape of the latticework we are seeing now
- 12:50 pm
- TeacherWhat are these lines and are they rounded or flat?
Bugscope Teamthose are the ribs of the scale, and they are three-dimensional, like tiny ladders
- Bugscope Teamso in a way they are rounded
- TeacherWhat are we looking at?
Bugscope Teamthis is the mouthpart of a mosquito responsible for cutting into our skin so that it can drink
- Bugscope Teamit acts like a steak knife and there are 3 others, I believe, that help this one
- Bugscope Teamthere may be four of these tiny stylets, as Cate says
- Bugscope Teamthey slide side by side when they cut into your skin
- TeacherWhat are these bumps?
Bugscope Teamthose are the sharp parts. They may not look like it because we are magnified so much, though. They are the part that helps cut
- 12:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe mouthparts we are looking at now are usually concealed inside a sheath -- the proboscis
- TeacherJohn says it looks like a slide. When it bites us, what does it do with the blood?
Bugscope Teamanother part of the fascicle that we do not see right now is a siphon tube that delivers saliva and brings back blood
Bugscope Teamshe uses the blood as an energy source so she can have enough energy to lay eggs
- TeacherIs this his compound eye?
Bugscope Teamyes right in the middle is a compound eye!
- Bugscope Teamthe male ants, like this one, do not live very long; they may even be refused entrance to the nest by the other ants
- TeacherWhy are there tiny hairs on his eye?
Bugscope Teamin other insects, like fruitflies, we know that the tiny hairs help them gauge windspeed and wind direction. so maybe those serve the same purpose
- TeacherWhy do the male ants fly?
Bugscope Teamthey fly so they can breed with queen ants in the air, far from the nest
- Bugscope Teamthe queen ant, when she gets back to the nest, will lose her wings and never fly again
- 1:01 pm
- TeacherHow come the male ants can't go into the nests
Bugscope TeamI am not sure, but it may be that they do not serve a useful purpose anymore. They may have chemicals on them that smell foreign to the guard ants, as well.
- TeacherHow big is the queen ant compared to the male flying ant?
Bugscope Teami'm not sure how much bigger, but she is bigger
- TeacherAre there any other female flying ants besides the queen?
Bugscope Teamit's my understanding the only ones with wings are queens and the males
- TeacherWhat are we looking at?
Bugscope Teamthese are gills on a caddisfly larva
Bugscope Teamthey are aquatic as larvae, and are also predatory, catching other insects
- 1:06 pm
- Teacheris this like seaweed to catch things?
Bugscope Teamthey are responsible for breathing underwater.
- TeacherAshley wants to know if their life is like a frog, living on both land and water?
Bugscope Teamkind of. As a larva they live in the water, but as an adult, they are more like a flying predatory insect that is not aquatic at all
- TeacherIs this a claw?
- TeacherWhat is this that we are looking at?
Bugscope Teamthe tail end has hooks that make it so it won't be carried away in a stream. It roots itself in place
- 1:12 pm
- TeacherWhat does it eat?
Bugscope Teamthey will eat other small insects are algae
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ambush bug. It sits on flowers and waits for an insect to go by so it can grab one and drink bug juices
- TeacherWe'd love to learn more, but the bell just rang. Thank you so much for your time. We've learned a lot today.
- Bugscope Teamthanks fro using bugscope today. We hope you all had a good time!
- Bugscope Teamfor*
- Bugscope Teamyou can go to your member page https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-016 at anytime to view chat and images from today
- Bugscope Teamand here is the inside of the chamber, where you can see all the insects are sitting
