Connected on 2012-10-01 10:00:00
from Cook, Illinois, United States
- 8:38 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamsample is in 'scope and pumping down
- 8:47 am
- 8:53 am
- 8:59 am
- 9:05 am
- 9:10 am
- 9:16 am
- 9:32 am
- Bugscope Teamhi mrs d
- Bugscope Teampollen grain! welcome back to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamlet us know when you have questions
- 9:39 am
- 9:48 am
- TeacherFinishing up some math and we'll be with you soon! The children are excited about the 'preview' I showed them!
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- TeacherJust looked at the bugs that were mounted. Do we have either of the cicadas that were sent? I know that will be a question I am asked!
Bugscope Teamsometimes we cannot use cicadas because they are so large there isn't room for anything else
- Bugscope Teamso no cicadas today...
- TeacherOk. Good to know the 'why'!
- Bugscope Teamthe stub we attach your specimens to is 1.75 inches in diameter. if we put a cicada on there would hardly be room for anything else.
- 9:55 am
- TeacherGot it. We are assembling soon . . .
- Bugscope Teamyou sent a lot of nice critters, and there is a good assortment here
- TeacherThey did go a great job collecting them this year :-)
Bugscope Teamwe could tell!
- 10:03 am
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called 'setae' by entomologists, pronounced see-tee
- Bugscope Teamthey have a variety of purposes in helping insects sense their environment
- Bugscope Teamsome of them sense touch, or currents in the air, like wind
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae sense smells in the air
- Bugscope Teamand some sense hot and cold
- Bugscope Teamwe can see some of the wasp's legs here; they have lots of joints where our wrists would be. those joints make them flexible
- Bugscope Teamthey also have claws at the ends of their legs, for the same reason we have hands
- 10:08 am
- TeacherBecca wants to know - Why do the wasps have claws? What do they use them for?
Bugscope Teamthey use their claws to hold things, and to help them cling to surfaces
- TeacherMs L - wants to know does this wasp still have it's stinger?
Bugscope Teamyes it does! It has a preset that you can choose or you can drive to the south
- Bugscope Teamthe stinger is very sharp and has ridges in it that help it cut into what it is going to sting
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges help it stick into your skin, but they are not so large that the wasp cannot withdraw its stinger
- TeacherJoseph wants to know why do wasps sting?
Bugscope Teamthey sting to protect themselves or their hive. If they perceive you as a threat, they will sting you. There are some wasps that will use that stinger to lay eggs into places or insects as well
- Bugscope Teammore than 100,000 wasp species are called parasitoids; they sting other insects and inject eggs into their bodies
- 10:13 am
- TeacherEmma wants to know if wasps use their claws to scratch and sting?
Bugscope Teamthey use their claws to hold onto things; their claws are so very small that they only tickle us
- Bugscope Teammoths and butterflies are often covered with tiny scales, like this moth
- Bugscope Teamother insects that have scales are silverfish, mosquitoes, and very few weevils and beetles
- Bugscope Teamif you were covered with scales and flew into a spider web, you would have a good chance of escaping by shedding those scales and slipping away
- TeacherThe students want to know what this big sphere is on this moth?
Bugscope Teamthat is one of the moth's compound eyes!
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes have many, many lenses, or facets, called ommatidia
- TeacherWhat is the tube on the upper right (above the sphere) of this head?
Bugscope TeamThat is where the antenna is. It's broken, so there is a hole
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the big sphere a little better!
- 10:19 am
- TeacherVarsha wants to know what a compound eye is?
Bugscope Teama compound eye is called 'compound' because it has lots and lots of ommatidia, lots of individual lenses; it's not a simple eye with one lens
- TeacherWhy does this wasp have hairs?
Bugscope Teamthe hairs help the insects to feel what is going on around it. They have tough exoskeletons that they can't feel anything with. The hairs are connected to nerves underneath.
- TeacherOrianna wants to know why the eye is so big on the moth?
Bugscope Teamflying insects tend to have very big eyes. The bigger the eye, the more facets it will have. The more facets it has- the more views around it it can see. This moth can see almost all around it
- Bugscope Teammoths can see kinds of light that we cannot see -- they can see ultraviolet light
- TeacherJeremiah would like to know what the antenna on the moth is used for?
Bugscope Teammoths and most other insects are sensitive to chemical odors -- to smells -- in the environment. the antennae have little sensors on them that allow the moth to smell the air. that brings them to flowers, which often have scents to attract the moths. and it also brings them to other moths, which produce pheromones, which are kind of like perfume.
- Bugscope Teamflowers sometimes have colors in ultraviolet wavelengths that attract moths
- Bugscope Teammoths also have especially large eyes because they are nocturnal -- they fly at night\
- 10:24 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head and forelegs and antennae of an earwig, which is a plant pest
- Bugscope Teaminsects have lots of 'feelers' around their mouths that help them move and also taste their food. we can see some of those as well
- TeacherNathalie would like to know what those bended things are on this earwig?
Bugscope Teamthose would be the antennae
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes on the sides of the earwig's head?
- TeacherEloise would like to know why are the bug's arms bent?
Bugscope Teamthe earwig is dead, and when bugs die their muscles and tendons contract -- they tighten up -- and that makes the arms and legs fold up like that
- TeacherDo all insects have compound eyes?
Bugscope Teammany do, and most of the flying insects have very large ones with lots of individual lenses/facets
- TeacherMary wonders where the eyes are on this bug?
- Bugscope Teammany flying insects also have three other eyes -- 'simple' eyes -- that are called ocelli
- TeacherAnkedo would like to know what the hole is in the middle of this head?
Bugscope Teamthat's the mouth. It has a small set of hinged jaws
- 10:30 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a roly poly, or pillbug, sometimes also called a woodlouse. it is not an insect but is actually a crustacean, like a shrimp or lobster
- TeacherHow do insects sleep if they have no eyelids and can't close their eyes?
Bugscope Teamthey don't sleep like you and me. They enter a period of rest, where if they are needed to move to get away from a predator really quickly- they can. Fish are similar
- Bugscope Teamwe can tell when a 'bug' is an insect, usually, because it has six legs, a head, a thorax, and abdomen, and two antennae. right away we know that the roly poly is not an insect because it has seven pairs of legs.
- Bugscope Teamthe legs of an insect are attached to the thorax, although sometimes the first pair is attached to what is called a prothorax
- Bugscope Teamsee the roly poly's antennae?
- Bugscope Teamsome insects have hairs, or setae, or bristles that when they are touched make them start running automatically
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a crane fly. they often look to us like giant mosquitoes, but they do not bite
- TeacherAlyssa would like to know if there is a mouth on this fly?
Bugscope Teamwe can see the compound eye, and to the left of it we see an extension of the head. the mouthparts are to the left of that.
- Bugscope Teaminsect mouths are very complicated compared to our mouths
- TeacherWhat are the spheres we can see now?
Bugscope Teamlooks like a ball of dirt or dust maybe
- TeacherIs this part of the mouth?
Bugscope Teamyes though it is difficult to tell which part. We are either on part of the palp- which helps taste or move around food, or we are on part of the tongue
- Bugscope TeamI read that adult craneflies feed on nectar, and that is likely why we see these brushlike mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamsome adult craneflies do not eat at all
- 10:41 am
- Bugscope Teamsome craneflies -- in the larval stage -- are predatory and may eat mosquito larvae
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the roly poly's 14 legs
- TeacherAbeer would like to know what these spikes on the roly poly legs are?
Bugscope Teamthe spikes help the roly poly adhere to surfaces, and some of them are likely also sensitive to touch
- Bugscope Teamnow we see that ants can also have compound eyes!
- TeacherWhy is this called a shy ant?
Bugscope Teambecause of the position of the leg- it looks like it's trying to hide its face
- Bugscope Teammost ants, wasps, and bees you see are girls. They do all the work for their colonies/hives
- TeacherSo the shy ant is your name for it, not the scientific one?!
Bugscope Teamhaha Yes it is our name for it today
- Bugscope Teamthese little portholes are found on the last several segments of many centipede's bodies
- 10:46 am
- TeacherWhat is a centipede considered since the first graders know it isn't an insect?
Bugscope Teamsometimes they are called 'myriapods'
- TeacherBrayden thinks these holes look like airplane windows. What do they do for the bug?
Bugscope Teamwe read that centipedes produce a smelly liquid sometimes, to deter ants from bothering them. we don't know for sure, but we thought that maybe this was where the liquid comes from.
- Bugscope Teamtell Brayden that we agree -- we think they look like airplane windows too.
- Bugscope Teammany insects and comparable arthropods have chemical defenses against ants
- Bugscope Teamthe biggest centipede is 12 inches long and found in the Amazon
- TeacherWhat are the slivers on the left side of this eye?
Bugscope Teamthose are scales from another insect- maybe a moth
- 10:51 am
- TeacherDo insects have a good sense of smell if they are using chemical defenses?
Bugscope Teamyes they often have a very refined sense of smell. ants use scents to communicate, and many other insects do as well
- TeacherSienna wants to know why it looks like there is a little bit of hair on its eye?
Bugscope Teamsome of the hairs we see at the bottom of the eye let the ladybug know when its head has moved, or its eye has moved; some of the hairs we see on insects are for self-sensing
- Bugscope Teamants have two of these combs -- one on each of the forelegs
- Bugscope Teamthey can slide their antennae through the combs to clean stuff off of the antennae
- TeacherNathan wants to know what is this comb of an ant we are looking at?
Bugscope Teamthe comb is like a brush, and it helps the ant clean her antennae
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not breathe through their mouths like we do
- 10:57 am
- TeacherThe students would like to know what this is?
Bugscope Teamthis is kind of like a nose that the ant breathes through. there are usually two per body segment, one on each side. they bring air into tracheae, on the inside of the body, that deliver the air to various internal organs
- TeacherIt looks like an eye
Bugscope Teaminside we see that it has microsetae that function kind of like a filter to keep dust out
- TeacherSienna would like to know if the outter part of this is a shell?
Bugscope Teamit's part of the exoskeleton of the insect, which is like a shell
- Bugscope Teamthat is why the insects have so many 'hairs' -- the exoskeleton is a kind of shell, and it is kind of like a suit of armor. the insect cannot feel something touching the exoskeleton unless there are setae sticking through it to sense that touch
- Bugscope Teamsome of the tiny hairs we see help the insect keep its temperature constant
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- 11:03 am
- TeacherMary wants to know why there are little holes on these scales?
Bugscope Teamthe holes help make them lighter and also may contain pigment granules or provide structural color
- TeacherEloise wants to know what do the scales do for the moth?
Bugscope Teamthey do lots of things! one is provide color that warns away predators; one is to help hold air so the moth can fly; one is to help the moth escape from a spiderweb by sticking to the web and releasing from the body or wing
- TeacherSienna wants to know why the scales overlap?
Bugscope Teamoverlapping gives the wings full coverage and makes the color pattern continuous
- TeacherBecca wants to know why moths need scales?
Bugscope Teamthey help the moth fly, give it color, and also help save the moth if it flies into a spiderweb
- TeacherJoecy wants to know why there are lines on the scales?
Bugscope Teamthe lines are ridges that strengthen the scale, like a ridged potato chip; they are also responsible for the structural color Cate mentioned -- the ridges interfere with light and produce colors that may change with the direction you are viewing from
- TeacherEloise wants to know if the scales grow back after the moth loses them?
Bugscope Teamno they don't grow back. Usually moths don't live long enough to lose so many that it can't live anymore. They have thousands of scales
- TeacherEmma wants to know what happens if a moth bumps into something and it's wing gets hurt, what will happen to the moth?
Bugscope Teamit can lose some of the scales without too much trouble, but if it loses too many scales it may not be able to fly anymore
- 11:10 am
- TeacherHow long does a moth usually live if it doesn't live long?
Bugscope Teamit really depends; they may live for a week, and they may live for months; if they live in the Tropics they may live longer than they do in temperate zones like we do
- Bugscope Teamthis is about 5 times higher magnification than a light microscope normally provides
- Bugscope Teamand we can go still higher, quite a bit
- Bugscope Teamso pretty!
- TeacherThank you for all of the wonderful information! Our attention is spent and we will move on and allow you to help the next scheduled session.We are all very appreciative and glad we were able to spend this time with you! Have a good day :-)
- Bugscope TeamThank You, Mrs D!
- Bugscope TeamThis was fun for us!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamThank you for connecting with us today!
- 11:15 am
- Bugscope Teamthank you for bugscope with us!
- Bugscope Teamsee you next year!
