Connected on 2014-06-25 16:30:00
from Adams, Colorado, United States
- 3:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamtoday's sample is pumping down
- 3:44 pm
- Bugscope Teamwaiting for vacuum to get a little better
- 3:49 pm
- Bugscope Teamalmost there
- 3:58 pm
- 4:07 pm
- 4:13 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow we're making presets
- 4:19 pm
- TeacherHello
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherThanks! We're excited. I'll soon have about 20 teens watching.
- Bugscope TeamSweet!
- Bugscope TeamThis is a mosquito that bit me last week.
- TeacherWow, is your blood in there? :)
Bugscope Teamprobably won't be able to see that
- Bugscope Teamwe can easily see blood cells, but I don't expect to see them. I'
- Bugscope TeamI'll look
- 4:25 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi
- TeacherHello!
Bugscope TeamIs everyone there?
- TeacherNo, people are still coming in
Bugscope Teamcool I am still collecting presets but we can start as soon as you wish
- 4:32 pm
- TeacherOK most of us are here now!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the pore through which a spider delivers its venom'
- Bugscope Teamwe're getting a victim's eye view of a spider here
- TeacherScary!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its eyes ar the top of where we're looking now
- Bugscope Teamto the left and the right, the smooth things are the fangs
- Bugscope Teamcool fact: venom is injected through bites or stings. poison is ingested (or licked if you like the taste of frogs)
- Bugscope Teammaybe you can see now -- the fang is folded against the chelicer
- Bugscope Teamit looks kind of like a stork, here
- 4:37 pm
- TeacherIt does look like a stork
- Bugscope Teamin the center, at a diagonal, is the fang
- Bugscope Teamlet's look at the other one for a sec
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see all of it; the tip is covered with setae
- Bugscope Teamhere's a ridge of toothlike elements that help the spider hold its prey as it bites
- TeacherWhat are the jagged things?
Bugscope Teamthe spider's retention plan
- Bugscope Teamthe chelicers are kind of like jaws that can be opened wide, and at their ends are the fangs
- Bugscope Teamspiders suck their prey up in liquid fashion, like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamlike a toothy mohawk
Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope TeamMichelle you can select from any of the presets to get the 'scope to drive to that place.
- Teacherwhat kind of spider is this?
Bugscope Teamnot sure -- we're not very good wtih spiders, which shrivel quite a lot when they die
- 4:42 pm
- Bugscope TeamI think this is a female because its palps seem small
- Bugscope Teamit was a small spider
- Bugscope Teamthe palps, or pedipalps, are on the front of the body, and we see them here curved over the place where we'd seen the chelicerae.
- Bugscope TeamI'd be a bit easier to tell what kind of spider it is if you look at the eyes. Unfortunately, color/pattern is another way you ID spiders
- TeacherThey want to see the butt!
Bugscope Teamthis is it!
- Bugscope Teamthese are the spinnerets
- TeacherIs that where the web comes out?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders and some insects as well, especially caterpillars, which are larvae, produce web from other places
- TeacherWe have a question from Mikaela: What do they eat?
Bugscope Teamthey eat insects and spiders and other arthropods
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders are large enough to eat things like birds
- Bugscope Teamthey use their fangs to inject digestive fluids into their prey
- 4:48 pm
- TeacherAnother question: How do they die or what do you think killed this? Did you step on him, Scot?
Bugscope Teamwe might have caught this one and frozen it, then let it air dry
Bugscope Teamthe only thing here that I actively killed was the mosquito
- Bugscope TeamMichelle, as a side note, freezing is the most humane to kill an insect as opposed to any other method
- Bugscope TeamTanya is an entomologist who's helping us today.
- TeacherArmando asks does the poop and web come out of the same place?
Bugscope Teamfrom the same area- the abdomen. the web comes from spinnerets located on the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamthis is an aphid
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the aphid's eyes -- compound eyes, and you can see its proboscis, which it sticks into leaves
- TeacherA question for Tanya: how do you identify insects?
- Bugscope TeamThere are a lot of ways actually
- Bugscope Teamthis is a stinkbug
- Bugscope Teamrelated to the aphid -- they're both true bugs
- Bugscope Teamalso related to cicadas
- TeacherThe stink bug's eyes look smoother
- Bugscope TeamThe biggest methods are mouthpart and wing venation
- Bugscope TeamYou can see that the last two insects we looked at have almost a straw like mouth between their eye
- 4:53 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis straw like mouth part makes them both Hemipteran
- Bugscope TeamSpiders create a special silk, they have two body parts and eight legs
- TeacherQuestion from Mikhaela: What is the difference between a spider and a bug?
Bugscope Teamspiders are arachnids, and bugs are generally insects; insects have six legs, a head, a thorax, an abdomen, and two antennae
- Bugscope TeamInsects have 3 body parts, wings (or remnants of wings), and 6 legs
- Bugscope Teamspiders have a cephalothorax -- their head and thorax are fused into one body part
- Bugscope TeamFun fact: All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs! The stink bug here is actually a bug (because of the straw mouth part) but a cricket and a butterfly are not bugs, they're insects
- Bugscope Teamthe other main body part of a spider is its abdomen
- Bugscope Teaminsects also have 2 compound eyes as adults. spiders have up to 8 simple eyes
- Bugscope Teaminsects, especially flying insects, sometimes have three small simple eyes, in addition to their compound eyes, called ocelli
- TeacherHow many claws do they have?
Bugscope Teamone at the end of each leg
- TeacherCan we zoom out to see the body shape of the stinkbug?
Bugscope Teamit is so big we cannot see all of it at once
- 4:59 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe stink glands open beneath the second pair of legs, but they are kind of gummed up
- Bugscope TeamThey are stink bugs because they emit a nasty smelling chemical when they are scared or threatened
- TeacherWhy are they called stinkbugs?
Bugscope Teamthey produce a scent that not even they like
- Bugscope Teamit has a shield shape, and we can see that it has a spiny edge to its exoskeleton
- TeacherIs it a gas or liquid that smells and is it a really strong smell?
Bugscope TeamI think it is a liquid that diffuses into the air -- a volatile liquid
- TeacherHow long do they live?
Bugscope Teamgenerally, probably about 6 weeks as adults; Tanya or Cate may have a better number
Bugscope TeamTheir life span varies from stinkbug to stinkbug, some adults hide away and can live all winter
- 5:04 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the spiracles, through which insects breathe
- TeacherCan humans smell it?
Bugscope Teamoh yes they can :)
Bugscope Teamsome stink bugs emit chemicals that smell like coriander - a spice we use in cooking!
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see both the proboscis of the mosquito and the fascicle -- the biting part
- Bugscope Teamthe fascicle is usually fully inside the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamwe've seen that the fascicle has six parts, in mosquitos we looked at
- TeacherHow wide can the stinkbug's legs stretch out?
Bugscope Teamdepends on the type of sink bug, but they would likely span, from where they attach to their body, no more than 2x their body width
- TeacherDo mosquitos have spit?
Bugscope Teamyes they have saliva, which keeps your blood from clotting; sometimes it also makes you itch
- Bugscope Teamthere are four long components that cut, called lancets or stylets
- 5:10 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere is on central component that delivers the saliva and also collects the blood, in an internal tube
- TeacherDo they have teeth?
Bugscope Teamno teeth
Bugscope Teamthe tnings we see now are super sharp, the closest thing to teeth
Bugscope Teamlike the serrations on the steak knife
- TeacherSomebody asked: Why do they need human blood?
Bugscope Teamthe females need the blood meal to have enough energy to lay their eggs
- TeacherWhat is the ommatidia?
Bugscope Teamit's the individual facet of the insect's compound eye
- 5:15 pm
- TeacherAnd, do any other animals or insects eat mosquitos?
Bugscope TeamYes! There are lost of animals that eat mosquitoes, fish, insects, birds, and spiders
Bugscope TeamMany animals eat mosquitoes when they are larvae - mosquito larvae live in water which makes the mosquitoes a tasty snack for many organisms living in the lake, pond, river, or stream
- Bugscope Teamoften we think a certain insect may have no value in the world, and we're always surprised that it is necessary; the best example is bees and other pollinators
Bugscope TeamYes! Especially the male mosquitoes because male mosquitoes don't drink blood
- TeacherWhat are the tinier spheres on the ommatidia?
Bugscope Teamwe don't know! they might be latex, from the air, from tires
Bugscope Teamsome of them are less than a micrometer in diameter, meaning that we are seeing objects on the nanoscale
Bugscope Teamwe can also see that the tiny bumps on the ommatidia are all on the nanoscale; we think they help collect and direct light
- Bugscope Teamwe can tell male from female mosquitoes (males don't bite) because the males have ornate antennae and the females have kind of boring antennae like the one we see here, on the righte
- 5:21 pm
- Bugscope TeamThankfully the insect body can only sustain its smaller size -- they cannot get as large as us.
- TeacherDo they have organs that humans have like liver or bladder?
Bugscope TeamInsects have organs with similar functions as human organs, but none of them resemble human organs
Bugscope TeamFor example, humans have kidneys that help filter fluids and absorb and minerals that the body might need. Insects have malpighian tubules which are long tubes at the end of the insects digestion system, which function very similarly to a human kidney
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes, butterflies, moths, and silverfish, along with few other insects, have scales
- TeacherDo the male and female larvae look different?
Bugscope TeamI'm not sure -- I think they look the same.
Bugscope TeamThey look the same
- TeacherDo the male and female mosquitoes fight eachother?
Bugscope Teamyou mean do they get in tiny high-pitched arguments?
- 5:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe're looking at mosquito scales now
- Bugscope Teamhaving scales on wings and bodies helps protect their bearers from spider webs
- TeacherI think we're at our attention span limit. Thank you all so much for the tour of insects!
- Bugscope Teamthese are the mandibles of a small flat beetle -- I'm sorry I don't remember what kind it is.
- Bugscope Teamthank you for joining us today
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
- Bugscope TeamThank you everyone :)
- TeacherThanks!!!
- 5:31 pm
- Bugscope TeamBye!
