Connected on 2013-05-31 14:30:00
from Alameda, California, United States
- 2:12 pm
- Bugscope Teamhello@
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- TeacherThe students will be in the classroom in 5 minutes
- Bugscope TeamMs. Uhlig you have control now.
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- Bugscope Teamyou may select from any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- Teacherthank you for giving this unique opportunity to us.
Bugscope Teamthis is really fun for us
- Bugscope Teamthis is the pupa
- Teacheralso, today we would like to see a compound eye
- Bugscope Teamhow about a nice moth compound eye?
- Teachergreat, we just had a moth emerge from its cocoon yesterday
- 2:17 pm
- Bugscope Teamdid it fly into the fluorescent lights?
- Bugscope Teamhaha I am such an optimist
- Teachergtg get my class brb
- Bugscope Teamwe had a Monarch butterfly hatch out, here in the basement, in the wintertime
- 2:23 pm
- Teacherokay we are back
- Bugscope Teamhi!
- Teacheralmost quiet and ready
- Bugscope Teamthis is a closeup view of the moth's compound eye, showing only a few of the ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamyou can change the mag if you'd like, using the controls at the top of the viewing screen
- Bugscope Teamyou can also click on any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- Bugscope Teamclicking on a preset will make the microscope drive to that position
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when the students have any questions at all
- TeacherThis is Rm 7 and Rm 10 second graders
- Teacherplease introduce yourselves
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope TeamI'm Cate. I work with the powerful microscope you are using today
- Bugscope TeamI'm Scot, and Cate is here as well -- she put the sample together for us
- Bugscope TeamAs you can see, insects are a lot hairier than they seem
- Bugscope TeamMoths have scales, which are kind of like feathers.
- Bugscope TeamSEM is the scanning electron microscope you are running from your classroom.
- Teacherstudent, why do some insects have special hair?
- TeacherStudent = ss:
- 2:28 pm
- Bugscope TeamI think every insect we have ever seen has setae, which is what the hairs are called.
- TeacherSS: what insect are we looking at
Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the moth
- Bugscope TeamThey need to have setae so they can use them to sense their surroundings.
- Bugscope Teamsome setae help with sense of touch, some help with smell, and some help with temperature
- Bugscope TeamSome of the setae are chemosensory, which are those Cate mentioned that help with smell.
- Teacher?
- Bugscope TeamBecause insects have an exoskeleton, it's like they're wearing a suit of armor.
- TeacherSS:do all insects have setae
Bugscope Teamyes. They need those hairs or they won't survive very long. SOme insects will have more than others
- Bugscope Teamso the hairs (setae) stick through the suit of armor (the exoskeleton, or shell) and allow the insect to sense its surroundings
- Bugscope Teamcompared to mammals, like us. we have skin with sensitive nerve endings in it for touch sensing
- Bugscope Teamand we have noses that help us smell
- Bugscope Teamand the nerve endings in our skin also let us know about hot/cold
- TeacherSS: why are insects and their setae so small?
Bugscope TeamInsects can - fortunately for us - be only so big because their respiratory system is not as good as ours.
- Bugscope Teaminsects are small because their breathing system can't support anythng bigger. If there were a higher concentration of oxygen in the air, like in prehistoric time, then they could be bigger
- 2:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe setae are presumably in perfect proportion to the size of the insects' bodies
- TeacherSS: how many eyes in one compound eye?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a milkweed bug
- Bugscope Teamants can have only 20 or so ommatidia, or facets, in the compound eye
- Teacherit looks like it has compound eyes?
Bugscope Teamthey do. All adult insects have compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamsome large hornets can have as many as 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Teamhow many facets in a compound eye depends on the species
- Bugscope Teamand dragonflies are said to have 32,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Teacherthat is pretty cool!
- Bugscope Teamthe insects that rely more heavily on sight tend to have more facets
- Bugscope Teamsome flying insects have simple eyes, in addition to their compound eyes
- TeacherSS: why do insects have compound eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthere's also a difference between nocturnal (night active) and diurnal (day active) species
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes help insects see more at one time - they give the insect much better peripheral vision
- Bugscope Teamalso, compound eyes are very sensitive to changes in the visual field, which means they can process movement very quickly, a good thing in the very fast and dangerous insect world
- Bugscope Teamso when we try to swat a fly, it looks like we are moving quite slowly, to the fly
- 2:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhoa those look cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pair of mandibular and maxillary palps on the mealworm's head
- Bugscope Teamthe mouth parts
- Bugscope Teamin between is one of the mandibles
- Teacherwhat part of the mealworm is this?
Bugscope Teamwe are near the head. These are mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamin people, the mandible is the lower jaw and the maxilla is the upper jaw, which is of course part of your head
- TeacherSS:why are there so many little dot things?
- Bugscope Teamthose bumps look like they can potentially be taste receptors?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teamthe dotlike things at the tips of the palps, which are accessory mouthparts, are taste receptors, like tastebuds on your tongue
- Bugscope Teamnow we see one set of legs
- Bugscope Teaminsects have six legs, one head, a thorax, an abdomen, and two antennae
- Bugscope Teamsome also have a prothorax
- Teacherdo they have 3 sets of legs?
- Bugscope Teamyes three sets of legs
- Teacheror the abdomen and thorax?
- Bugscope Teamyea, it's kind of like the shoulder/chest area
- Bugscope Teamsome caterpillars, which are larval insects, also have what are called prolegs, like 'proto' legs
- Bugscope Teamthe prothorax is between the head and the thorax. sometimes the first set of legs is attached to the prothorax
- Teacheris the prothorax the middle of the body?
Bugscope Teamprothorax is slightly more specific than thorax, in that it's the first of three segments of the thorax
- 2:45 pm
- Bugscope TeamHello Facundo!
- TeacherSS:are those hairy legs?
Bugscope Teamlooks like it. since insects have exoskeletons, they rely on these hairs to sense their environment and also to get a sense of where their own appendages are.
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs on a pulvillus are called tenent setae
- TeacherSS:how do bugs crawl up trees without falling?
Bugscope Teamsome bugs have hairy pads that called pulvilluses that help them cling to branches
Bugscope Teamtheir claws also can help with clinging
- Guesthello scot how are you?
Bugscope Teamgood! welcome aboard from Argentina!
- Teacherbuenos tardes
- Bugscope TeamCate let me know that the plural of pulvillus is pulvilli
- Bugscope Teambuenos tardes!
- TeacherWhat is a spiral?
- Bugscope Teamsometimes super tiny hairs are called villi, so pulvillus is a tricky word. a villus is a tiny hair
- GuestOk, thank you, I`ll stay here only reading what are you doing!!
- Teacherspiracle?
Bugscope Teamyes this is a spiracle, which is what insects use to collect air!
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually two spiracles per body segment, on each side
- Bugscope Teamthey have a kind of filtration apparatus to keep dust out
- 2:50 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a darkling beetle pupa
- Bugscope Teamit is kind of not pretty
- Teacheris this specimen damaged?
Bugscope Teamit looks like it was opened up where the adult came out
- Bugscope TeamCate smashed it.
Bugscope Teamdid not!
- Bugscope Teamjk
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see the eyes' pupae are kind of weird
- Teacherlike nostrils!
Bugscope Teamyes! they are connected to tracheae that deliver air to the inner organs
Bugscope Teamand in the case of insects, the air is actually delivered directly to each cell, since they don't have a closed circulatory system
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the antennae of a darkling beetle
- Bugscope TeamJoe is an entomologist.
- Bugscope Teambeneath the antenna we can see the beetle's compound eye, one of them
- Bugscope Teamantennae usually have lots of chemosensors and chemosensory setae on them
- Teacherhexagons!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth's compound eye, up close'
- Teacherlooks like a honeycomb
- 2:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamhexagons are a perfect shape for a sphere made of smaller spheres
- TeacherSS:do insects eat meat?
Bugscope Teamsome insects eat meat
- Bugscope Teamdermestid beetles eat meat, and leather
- Bugscope Teammoths can see colors that we cannot see
Bugscope Teamyup! a lot of insects can see ultraviolet light, although they miss out on the red end of the spectrum
- Bugscope Teambut lots of other insects will eat meat as well. insects do not let things go to waste
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of one of the moth's legs
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the moth has claws
- Teacherno exoskeletons?
- Bugscope Teamhere we can also see the pads of sticky hairs that help the moth cling to vertical surfaces and even upside down
- TeacherSS: why do the moths/silkworms feel squishy?
Bugscope Teamthey have an exoskeleton but it is soft so they can grow
- 3:00 pm
- Bugscope Teammoths are not so squishy but they are covered with fine scales that protect them from getting caught in spider webs
- Teacherthat bugs me...
Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure what these tiny crystals are from
- Teacherthank you for your time Joseph, Cate and Scott
- Teacherwe need to go home :(
- Bugscope Teamthanks for joining us today!
- Bugscope TeamThank You for connecting with us today!
- Bugscope Teamanimal fibers oops
- Bugscope TeamI had it backwards
- Bugscope Teamthey like the plant fibers that are in clothes. Cotton is part of a plant
Bugscope Teamif you get holes in cotton clothes, it's more likely dermestids (carpet beetles)
- Bugscope Teameww
- Bugscope Teamnot a big fan of dermestids
- Bugscope Teamhaha yea...they get into everything
- Bugscope Teamso hard to get rid of
- Bugscope TeamFacundo please let us know if you would like to drive a bit when Ms. Uhlig is done.
- Guestno thanks may be in a next session!!
- Bugscope Teamalright cool! you are always welcome