Connected on 2013-10-04 15:15:00
from Santa Barbara, California, United States
- 2:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamsample is in 'scope and pumping down
- 2:33 pm
- 2:39 pm
- 2:44 pm
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- 2:50 pm
- 2:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- 3:01 pm
- 3:08 pm
- 3:14 pm
- GuestHi! Here from NC with my bug-loving daughters (4 and 6)
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 3:19 pm
- Bugscope TeamLeigh Ann please let us know when you have questions.
- TeacherHi. Thank you for letting us watch Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamSo Amy you have control of the microscope
- Bugscope TeamThis is likely a buprestid, metallic wood borer.
- Bugscope Teamyou can click on any of the presets, to the left (lefthand screen), and the 'scope will drive to that place
- Bugscope TeamThe emerald ash borer is in this beetle family.
- TeacherCool! What does it eat?
- Bugscope Teamsome of the beetles in this family are pretty cool, and locate hosts using infrared heat sensors
- Bugscope Teamand they go after hosts that have just been or are burning
- Bugscope Teamthey eat plants -- the woody and non-woody portions of plants
- Bugscope Teamso they feed on trees
- TeacherDoes it burn its food?
Bugscope Teamno they wait for natural fires that occur or when there are prescribed burns
- 3:24 pm
- Bugscope Teamit's really cool to see how its head is streamlined
- TeacherWhere does it live?
Bugscope TeamI think this one is local to Illinois.
Bugscope Teamthe larvae feed and develop in trees feeding on the phloem
- Bugscope Teamits eyes and antennae and its tiny mandibles are all neatly folded into the shape of its head, for boring
- TeacherIs this a strong insect?
Bugscope Teamits little jaws are strong
- Bugscope Teamthis is a cute little ladybug
- Bugscope Teambefore it becomes the beetle we're used to
- Bugscope Teamthey are predators both as larvae and as beetles, as adults
- Bugscope Teamthey are predators and some species are used as bio-control
- TeacherHave the wings grown yet?
Bugscope Teamno it will not get wings until it becomes an adult
- Bugscope TeamJoe could correct me, but I believe that all insects, once they get wings, are adults and do not change; they don't molt, for example, once they have wings
Bugscope Teamyup
Bugscope Teammayflies are a potential exception to this
- TeacherCan you show us its eyes? Does it see?
Bugscope Teamthe two mounds running along the center of the image are eyes, which are called stemmata in caterpillars
- 3:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe thing to the right, center, is its antenna
- TeacherHow long until it is an adult?
Bugscope Teamthey're said to take 3 to 4 weeks to become adults, in part depending on the weather
- TeacherCan you tell us about what we are looking at?
Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of a cranefly, which looks to us like a giant mosquito but is harmless
- Bugscope Teamwe're looking at only one of the eye facets, which are called ommatidia
- TeacherWhat is the white stuff on the eye?
- Bugscope Teamthe little things that resemble whiffle balls are called brochosomes
- Bugscope Teamthe brochosomes are so small we can hardly resolve them at these settings on the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamthey're actually nanoparticles -- 250 to 400 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teambrochosomes are produced solely by the insects called leafhoppers
- 3:34 pm
- Bugscope Teambut we find them on other insects
- Bugscope Teamyou can see a rectangular mark where we had parked the electron beam for a while
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the cranefly's whole head
- Bugscope Teamits antennae are pointing forward, to the right
- Bugscope Teamsee the little dot on the back of its head, to the left?
- TeacherHow does it see? Does it see a lot of images?
Bugscope Teamit sees a lot of images but processes them like a mosaic
- Bugscope TeamThe compound eye gives them a vision that's sort of a mosaic
- Bugscope Teamhaving compound eyes is an advantage because it gives the insect much better peripheral vision
- Bugscope Teamthis doesn't give them high resolution, but allows them to process movements quicker
- Bugscope Teamalso, compound eyes make their bearer more sensitive to motion -- as Joe just said
- Bugscope Teamthe raised dot on the back of the head is another type of eye called an ocellus
- Bugscope Teamthe bump that you see to the left of the compound eye is a ocellus
- Bugscope Teamflying insects often have ocelli, and they have three of them, usually
- 3:40 pm
- TeacherWhat is an ocellus and what does it do?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a simple eye, it's believed to be mostly light sensitive, so it is sensitive to light and dark, but doesn't actually process images
- Bugscope Teamthe cicada killer, also in this set of specimens, has three large ocelli
- Bugscope Teamit's also believed that the simple eye helps them orient during flight
- Bugscope TeamJoe and I are in different buildings, kind of telling you the same things sometimes
- Bugscope Teamyea sorry about that
- Bugscope Teamand they don't have noses, generally, or ears, for the most part
- Bugscope Teamthey breathe, or control the intake/egress of air, through pores called spiracles that they can open and close at will
- Bugscope Teamon the inside of the body, the spiracles connect with tracheae, which are little tubes that carry air to the internal organs, which are different from ours
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin like we do, with nerve endings in it
Bugscope Teamthis is what all the hairs (setae) you see all over an insect's body is for
Bugscope Teamthe setae sense movements (air, touch, etc..), they are also used in propriosensing (self awareness of where appendages are)
Bugscope Teamsetae also provide some form of thermoregulation
- 3:45 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small fly, like a housefly
- Bugscope Teamthe two things we see now, on top of the head are the antennae
- TeacherWhat is on top of it?
Bugscope Teami believe those are its antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae have a pad-like element that has internal components that help the fly sense the vibrations of other flies' wings
- TeacherWhat is that nose type looking thing?
Bugscope Teamthat is the mouth, in this case sponging mouthparts
- TeacherCan you show us a spider or a bee?
- Bugscope Teammany flies, like houseflies and fruitflies, have sponging mouthparts that apply saliva to a surface and then suck up what dissolves
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see how these flies have gigantic eyes, which is one reason they're so hard to swat, since they're able to see almost all the way around their heads
- Bugscope Teamcan you count the eyes here?\
- Bugscope Teamthe spider is facing the northwest
- Bugscope Teamspiders are not insects, as you know\
- Bugscope Teamone way we can tell they are not insects is that they have eight rather than six legs
- 3:50 pm
- Bugscope Teamalso, they do not have a head and a thorax, like an insect
- Bugscope Teamspiders usually have 6 or 8 eyes, rarely some have 0 or 2
- Bugscope Teamthe things I was calling palps are the chelicers, or chelicerae
- Bugscope Teamactually, they have separate palps, and those of the males are larger
- TeacherIs this the front? Or what does it look like in the front?
Bugscope Teamwe have to make a choice when we place an insect or arthropod on the stub, and in this case we put it dorsal side up
Bugscope Teamfrom the front we would see two large palps, and below them we would see the fangs, curved inward
Bugscope Teamyou're looking at the spider kind of top down, there are 4 eyes on the top, and 4 eyes on that front edge
- Bugscope Teamnow we're zooming in on the top of the head
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving!
- TeacherHow do you know if it is a boy or a girl?
Bugscope Teamboys are often smaller, but if you don't have two it's hard to tell. boys also have larger palps
- Bugscope Teamnow we're looking at plumose setae, kind of like pine trees
- 3:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamspiders are very sensitive to vibration, and even with eight eyes they often do not see very well
- TeacherWhat is a palp?
Bugscope Teama palp is an accessory mouthpart, like a feeler near the mouth
- TeacherWhy do spiders go towards you instead of away?
Bugscope Teammaybe they are trying to scare you -- they are quite vulnerable, however
- Bugscope Teamspiders have soft bodies. if you dropped a tarantula, it would break open if its legs did not break its fall
- TeacherIt works! What is the circles? Is it where the hairs grow?
Bugscope Teamhaha Yes it does! Yes that is where some of the hairs have been lost
- TeacherWhat is the spider's weakness? Is it its soft body?
Bugscope Teamyes and they also dry up easily
Bugscope Teamtheir appendages are also pretty fragile, so some can lose their legs easily
- Bugscope Teama tarantula's urticating hairs can get lodged in the surface of your eye
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders have tiny hairs, called urticating hairs, that they can project at you to keep you away
Bugscope Teamurticating hairs are also present in some caterpillars, so be careful of what you touch!
- 4:02 pm
- TeacherCan you show us the spinner area?
Bugscope TeamI'm sorry -- now we're where the spinnerets would be, but the abdomen is soft and shrivels quickly when the spider dies -- it shriveled up
- TeacherAre those old web pieces?
Bugscope Teamyes we are seeing some leftover web. spiders can recycle their web by eating it
- Bugscope Teamweb comes in different thicknesses and also in different stickinesses
- Bugscope Teamyou can see some of those plumose setae beneath the web
- TeacherHow many eggs can they lay? And can they swim?
Bugscope Teamsome can lay thousands of eggs, but it really depends on the species
Bugscope Teami'm not too sure on the swimming and how common that is, but there is a spider called diving bell spider, and it can dive into the water
Bugscope Teamthis spider lives its entire life under water
- TeacherAre those hairs in the background? Why would one web be less sticky?
Bugscope Teamthey can chew their way out of their own web if they get caught in it, but they also produce nonsticky web for themselves to walk on
- 4:07 pm
- TeacherIs this a web?
Bugscope Teamthis is the stinger of a cicada killer wasp, or hornet
- Bugscope Teamthere is web on it, and we also see some bee setae, which are branched
- Bugscope Teamthe cicada killer does not sting people unless they are really bothering it
- Bugscope Teamit uses its stinger to inject venom into a cicada that paralyzes the cicada
- Bugscope Teamthen it flies the cicada to its nest, in the dirt, and it lays an egg on the cicada
- Bugscope Teamstingers are ovipositors
- TeacherCan we see more of its body?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teamit is so large we cannot see it all at once
- TeacherWhat is an ovipositor?
Bugscope Teamova are eggs, so an ovipositor is an egg-depositor
- TeacherIs that the head and antennae?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamone of the antennae is broken
- Bugscope Teamyou can see down into it
- 4:12 pm
- TeacherSo, it doesn't eat the cicada? Just lay eggs on it?
Bugscope Teamthe larvae, when they hatch, will eat the cicada
- Bugscope Teamyou can see hundreds of ommatidia -- the eye facets
- Bugscope Teamthere can be, in a large hornet's compound eye, as many as 30,000 ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamthose tubes are tracheae\
- TeacherWe thank you so much!!! You are awesome!
- TeacherWe have to get ready to go home for the day. We thank you very much for this great chance to see the insects and the spider.
Bugscope TeamThank you! We enjoyed working with you!
- Bugscope TeamI'm going to ask Leigh Ann if she is still here...
- Bugscope TeamWe had a good time working with you, Amy!
- Bugscope TeamLeigh Ann please let us know if you would like to drive, if you are still online.
- Bugscope TeamI gave you control of the microscope.
- TeacherMy class had a great time. Thank you. We enjoyed this so much.
Bugscope TeamSweet! See you next year!
- TeacherGoodbye
Bugscope TeamBye!
- 4:18 pm
- Bugscope TeamLeigh Ann I will be shutting down soon...
- Bugscope Teamthank you, everyone!
- Bugscope Teamhave a good weekend!
