Connected on 2013-07-24 10:00:00
from Albany, New York, United States
- 9:42 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- 9:47 am
- 10:14 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugcope!
- Studenthi
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of one of the butterflies on the stub this morning
- Studentcool
- Studenthay
Bugscope TeamHi Minni!
- Studenthello
Bugscope TeamHello Lelen!
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Studenthii
- Studentwhat's a compound eye
Bugscope Teamit's an eye that insects have, some insects, with multiples lenses, or facets, called ommatidia
- 10:20 am
- Studentoh. cool
- StudentAre we looking at a 'live' butterfly?
Bugscope Teamthe insects are inside a scanning electron microscope vacuum chamber, so they are not alive
- Bugscope Teamthis is a caterpillar
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its legs now
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ventral side -- the underside
- Bugscope Teamall the insects we are looking at today are dead and dry- the best conditions for looking at through a SEM
- Studentcompound eyes are a bunch of different eyes grouped together i think
Bugscope Teamthat's right!
- Studentwhat part of a catterpillar is that?
Bugscope Teamthe head is to the upper right area. It is a big fat head
- Studentwhat type of caterpillar is this?
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars often have silk glands near the mouth, so they can produce web
- Studentwhat butterfly is this from
- Studentwhat exactly is a SEM?
Bugscope Teamscanning electron microscope -- it's a microscope that uses electrons to produce images of the samples, which must be in a vacuum
- Studentthe scales?
- StudentAre these the wings
Bugscope Teamthese are scales found on the wings and all over the bod
Bugscope Teambody*
- Studenthow do butterflys have scales and yet the wings feel soft?
Bugscope Teamthe scales are very tiny, and they are soft, themselves, not like snake scales
- StudentWhat butterfly is this from?????
Bugscope TeamI'm not sure what kind of butterfly it was from. Sorry
- Studentits okay
- Studenty do they over lap
Bugscope Teamthe scales do various things, and one is to protect the insect from flying into a spider web; they come off easily; overlapping ensures that the wing is covered
- StudentCan you zoom into another part?
- Studenti think it depends on the type of butterfly
- Studentok thxs
- Studentwhat is a butterflys wingspan?'
Bugscope Teamthey vary, but some can be several inches and even larger
- Bugscope Teamscales also give the wings color
- 10:25 am
- Studentwhat does lobed mean??
- Studenthow do caterpillars make chrystlist?
Bugscope Teamthey use the silk glands to weave the chrysalis
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking up close at a lobed antenna
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae have sensory setae and sensory pits that help the butterfly smell the air
- Studentis each little mountain thing the part of the butterfly that controlles the senses?
Bugscope Teamyes that is correct!
- Studentwhat does lobed mean??
Bugscope Teambutterflies have a bulb at the end of their antennae, which is what lobed means
- StudentIs that hairy? Or does it just look like it?
Bugscope Teamthey are hairy, but in insects and other similar arthropods we call the hairs setae, or we are supposed to
- StudentIs that where they smell things?
Bugscope Teamyes it is; insects are very sensitive to chemical scents in the air, and on surfaces
- Studentwhere they suck in nectar from the flowers
- Studenthow big is it?
- Studentis that their proboscis
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Studentis the black line in the middle the straw that takes up nectar.
- StudentHow often do you open up these sessions for 'bug veiwing'?
- Studentisn't the proboscis very long, or does it vary from butterfly to butterfly?
- Studentwhat is the top part?
- Studentwhy are there two tracks going down the sides?
- Studenthow many senses does a butterfly have?\
Bugscope Teamsight, smell/ taste, a version of hearing, touch, including the sensation of hot and cold; they may also have a form of electrical field sensing
- Studentcool
- Studentdo they smell with their feet ??????????
Bugscope Teamsome of them do -- some of them have chemosensory setae on their feet
- Studentis that like their hand?
- StudentWhere is the proboscis located?
Bugscope Teamwhere you would expect the mouth to be
- Studentis the black line in the middle the straw that takes up nectar.
- Studentwhat does chemosensory mean sj????????????\
- StudentHow many claws do they have
- 10:30 am
- Studentdo they have claws
- Studenthow long are their claws
- Studentsort of freaky!
- Studentare those their eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes they are!
- Studentand is the long thing the proboscis
Bugscope Teamyou cannot see the proboscis too well now --- it's right in the middle
- Studentwhat is the fluzzz thing between its eyes
- Studentand are those their wings, too?
Bugscope Teampart of the wings are there. I cut off a portion of the wings so it wouldn't take up the whole sample stage
- StudentWhat is above the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthose are palps, which help insects taste and manipulate their food
- Bugscope Teamyou can see on the left where Cate had to cut the wing away -- it was too large
- Studentdo butterflies have tiny hairs all over the body?
Bugscope Teamyes many insects do as well -- insects do not have skin, instead they have an exoskeleton, kind of like armor, so the hairs stick through to help them sense the environments
- Bugscope Teamenvironment..
- Studentit looks like honeycomb!
- Studentare butterflies mostly water like humans?
Bugscope Teamyes they are, maybe less water than we are
- StudentAre they in perfectly straight lines for a reason?
Bugscope Teamit's the way they grow!
- Studenthow long is one scale (approximately)?
- 10:35 am
- Studentis this inside their wings?
Bugscope Teamthis is on the inner side, but you would not necessarily be able to tell
- Studentwhat part of the caterpillar is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the spiracles
- StudentZoom farther in on the bottom?
- Studentwhats a spiracle?
Bugscope Teamspiracles are breathing pores in insects; there are usually two on the sides of each segment
- StudentHow many spiracles do they have?
Bugscope TeamI think it depends on how many segments they have, not sure really
- Studentwhat are those hairy looking things?
- Studentwhat segment?
Bugscope Teamkind of like an armadillo or a rolypoly, the segments
- StudentIs this on the bottom of a caterpillar? (like where they stick on to things)
Bugscope Teamyes this is near that area
- StudentAre the hairs like filters for breathing?
Bugscope Teamyes, that is exactly right
- Studentwhat are the sticks/
Bugscope Teamthe one part to the left is a plant fiber
- Bugscope Teamthe fliters are to keep dust and stuff out of the tracheae, which are tubes on the inside of the body that lead to various organs
- Studentwhat are those hairy looking things?
Bugscope Teamnot sure, Dude
- 10:41 am
- Studentwhat are the cracks?
Bugscope Teamthe cracks in the background are in the doublestick carbon tape
- StudentThanks!
- StudentWhat organs do they have similar to humans?
Bugscope Teamsome insect have something like a brain, and the Malpighian tubules are like kidneys; they do not have lungs; they have a kind of lobed heart like thing but an open circulatory system
- Studentis every part covered in hair?
Bugscope Teamoften it seems that way; some of the setae are quite small
- Studentwhat are the stringey looking things inside some of the cells
- StudentWhat is the stuff inside the pockets?
Bugscope Teamit could be a light layer of chitin, which is what their exoskeleton is made of
- 10:46 am
- StudentThank you for answering all our questions! it was alot of fun! BYE!!\
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope Teambye thanks
