Connected on 2013-10-10 16:30:00
from Alameda, California, United States
- 6:41 pm
- StudentHI there~
- StudentWe will be back in a bit!
- Bugscope Teamhaha Awesome
- 6:47 pm
- 6:53 pm
- StudentAre we all set?
- Bugscope Teamready to roll
- Bugscope Teamyou have control now
- StudentThanks!!
- Bugscope TeamI can give 'Michele' control if you wish.
- 6:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the haltere of a cranefly
- Bugscope Teamoops messed you up
- Bugscope Teambe sure to let us know when you have questions
- StudentWhat is haltere of a cranefly
- Bugscope Teamcraneflies are flies -- Diptera -- which means they have two wings. the halteres are balancing components of the flying structure that beat opposite the way the wings beat and provide balance in flight
- Bugscope Teamthis is the cranefly's head, of course; they look like super large mosquitoes
- Bugscope Teambut they are kind of slow and don't bite
- Bugscope Teamaa adults they are said to feed on nectar
- Bugscope Teamas adults..
- StudentDo I have control? Michele?
- Bugscope Teamnow you do
- Bugscope TeamCSU had it
- 7:04 pm
- Guestwhat do they feed on before they're adults?
- Bugscope Teamroots 'and other vegetation'
- Bugscope Teamthe larvae are said to be called leatherjackets. I have never seen them to my knowledge
- Bugscope Teamthey eat grass roots, for example
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye
- Bugscope Teamone of them
- Bugscope Teamthe facets are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamprobably a few thousand ommatidia per eye
- Guesthow are they able to see? I'm guessing they don't see like us (using pupils and etc.)
Bugscope Teameach ommatidium is an individual lens; they are kind of like our eyes, but they're not as good individually
- Bugscope Teamwith compound eyes you have better peripheral vision and also get faster updates from the visual field
- Guesthow many ommatidium do they have? per "eye"?
Bugscope Teama few thousand, here; some large wasps can have 30,000 ommatidia per eye
- 7:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamflying insects also have, often, simple eyes called ocelli on the top of the head, usually three
- StudentWe wan tot be on teh yellow jacket head.....darn it!!
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli are more rudimentary but give good info about orientation
- StudentMichele...control...please
Bugscope TeamI cannot get to the yellowjacket head either; just a sec
- GuestAre those teeth?
Bugscope Teamno they protect the tongue
- Bugscope Teamabove the things that look like teeth are the mandibles, which open left and right like a gate
- StudentSo what are they exactly?
Bugscope Teamreally do not know their function
- Guestare the body hairs all used as feelers?
Bugscope Teamthey are almost all receptors of some sort, so yes
- StudentLooks like an evil rabbit
Bugscope Teamyes it does!
- GuestAre we looking at the bellyside of the yellowjacket?
Bugscope Teamyes this is the ventral side, where the legs are
- 7:14 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called setae, and they are mechanosensory, chemosensory, thermosensory; some are used for proprioception
- GuestIs that an antenna coming out of its mouth area? or is it curling into its mouth?
Bugscope Teamthere are both antennae, which come from about where we might expect to see eyes, and there are palps, which come from the mouth\
- GuestProprioception?
Bugscope Teamself-sensing
- GuestWhat are those small particles? Looks like pollen...
Bugscope Teamone of those we see now is a scale from a butterfly or moth
- Bugscope Teamsome of the bristles that stick out of limbs bend when the limbs are moved and thus let the insect know that the limb has moved
- Bugscope Teamthe poor imaging is due to electrons not shedding from the sample quickly
- Bugscope Teamthe specimens are all coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive, but insects are difficult to coat well
- Studentis this ant missing its gaster?
Bugscope Teamexactically
Bugscope Teamdon't know how that happened!
- Bugscope Teamants communicate mostly through chemical signals
- 7:19 pm
- Bugscope Teamalmost all ants we see are females
- Bugscope Teamwhen we see winged ants, if they are not the queen, they're males
- Bugscope Teamball and socket fit of the antenna to the head
- Bugscope Teamthose super tiny setae are likely for proprioception
- Guestwhat is an ant's leg length in porpotion to it's body length? the legs seem quite long
Bugscope Teamthey differ according to species; for example those of leafcutter ants are quite long
- Bugscope Teamspiders have an autotomy function whereby they can jettison a leg once they sense venom coming into it
- StudentWhat is a cephalothorax?
Bugscope Teamcephalo means head and thorax is the trunk region; in a spider they are fused into one piece
- Bugscope Teamum this spider has, like, totally no legs
- StudentHow much time do we have left in our session?
Bugscope Team3 hours 26 minutes
- Bugscope TeamI think we're good for 35 minutes before someone else shows up
- Guestso the best way to poison the spider is an injection directly into the belly?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- 7:24 pm
- StudentWhat are thos "bumpy" parts?
Bugscope Teamthe eyes
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders have what are called 'urticating hairs' that they can actually shoot at you
- Bugscope Teamstinger
- Bugscope Teamsee the serrations?
- Guestis a bee's stinger ticklish?
Bugscope Teamno I don't think so; you can see it slides, side by side, to cut into you
- Bugscope Teamstingers are modified ovipositors, so they are found only on females
- StudentIs that a part of its wing there that I see right now?
Bugscope Teamthat is part of someone else's wing -- a butterfly or moth
- Guestovipositors = egg laying thing?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- StudentHow is someone else's wing by its stinger?
Bugscope Teamwhat we see, I think, is a loose scale from a moth wing
- Guestif the bee were alive, would it "clean" itself to remove the moth scale?
Bugscope Teamyes it would
- StudentWhy are there so many hairs on the bee? I am wondering why
Bugscope Teampart of that is thermoregulation
- 7:30 pm
- StudentAre the holes hiding places for other insects?
Bugscope Teamthis is a piece of bark, so we are looking at cells
- Bugscope TeamCate thought you'd sent us some redwood bark.
- StudentThis will be our last specimen
- StudentScot, could you show us some detail in the moth scale?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a moth, of course, covered with scales, which among other things protect insects that have them from getting caught in spider webs
- Guestthe moth looks like it has tiny feathers
Bugscope Teamthose are the scales; I think one of their functions is much like that of feathers
- Bugscope Teamsorry hard to find ones that do not charge up with electrons
- 7:35 pm
- Guestis this the same type of moth that makes holes develop in clothing?
- Bugscope Teamthe larvae do that; I think this is one of them.
- Bugscope Teama palm frond in an old master's painting indicates martyrdom
- Guestwhat does an ant's eyes look like?
Bugscope Teamwe saw them earlier; they are generally not as complex and have way fewer ommatidia
- GuestThanks!!!!!
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Mike.
- Bugscope Teamsubstructure of the eye to the upper left
- Bugscope Teamlike tiny rods or cones
- StudentOk Scot - we are going to log off. Thanks for the great time and working things out tonight! I / we appreciate it very much!
- Bugscope TeamThank you, everyone, for logging in this evening.