Connected on 2014-04-22 13:00:00
from Solano County, California, United States
- 11:59 am
- Bugscope Teamwaiting for vacuum
- Bugscope Teamthis is the inside of the vacuum chamber
- 12:07 pm
- 12:13 pm
- 12:19 pm
- 12:24 pm
- GuestTESTING.. ARE WE ACTIVE?
- GuestJust FYI, We'll have one computer in each of the three classrooms signed on and sending questions your way.
- 12:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamyes we are active sorry did not see your message right away
- Teacherthis is class two of three. Getting us logged in.
- Teacherwe're ok to have three computers logged in, correct?
- Bugscope Teamyou can have as many as maybe 25 or 30. but only one person can drive at once
- 12:36 pm
- Guestsounds good. I'll be in my own classroom so you may need to do a brief intro as to how to drive.
- Guestso these are the three classes below.
- 12:41 pm
- Bugscope Teamcool we are ready to roll
- Bugscope Teamyou can test if you would like
- 12:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamfrom Wikipedia:
- Bugscope TeamThis species has evolved a very interesting relationship with the yeast-like fungus, Endomyces hylecoeti. Every egg the female lays is coated with fungal spores from a pouch near her ovipositor. The larvae hatch and collect some of the spores by staying close to their egg shells for a while before tunnelling into the wood. The fungi grows on the walls of the tunnel the larvae make and it is this the young eat rather than the wood. The fungi requires a good flow of air, so the larvae keep their tunnel free of any debris.[1]
- Bugscope Teamthis is a ship timber beetle
- Bugscope Teaminsects and similar athropods often have what appear to be too many hairs (setae) to count
- TeacherWe're here and about ready to start. we have our first question which is how many hairs are on this type of beatle.
Bugscope Teamlots and lots. many insects have hairs all over their body. These hairs are called setae, and they allow the insect to sense its environment and itself.
Bugscope TeamThese are necessary as insects have an exoskeleton, meaning they have a hard shell which they can't sense through. setae can also aid in thermoregulation
- GuestWhat are the parts that look like hands and have 10 or 12 fingers?
Bugscope Teamthose are palps, which are modified in this species, or highly modified in this species\
- Bugscope Teampalps are accessory mouthparts that usually help insects taste and manipulate their food into their mouths
- GuestThank you
- GuestWhat are they used for?
Bugscope Teamthis is a male ship timber beetle, and those weird palps are said to help the male hold onto the female
- 1:04 pm
- Guestd
- Teacherhow any eggs can this beetle lay?
Bugscope TeamI'm not sure anyone knows. Likely dozens to hundreds.
- Bugscope TeamMr D has control of the microscope. If another classroom would like to drive we can give them access.
- GuestDoes his antennae come from some sort of hole? Does he have 2?
Bugscope TeamAll insects have 2 antennae. it is in a joint socket so that the antennae can move freely.
- Bugscope Teamin the center of the view we see now -- of a female mosquito, the central component is the proboscis\
- GuestIs that the antennae in the middle?
Bugscope Teamthe thing in the very middle is the proboscis- the mouth part. you can see part of one antennae coming from the middle of the screen and going to the upper right
- TeacherWhat are the dots all over the body?
Bugscope Teamthose dots are the individual facets of the mosquito's compound eyes
- GuestWhy does it look like a pinecone on the bottom? Of the mosquito!
Bugscope Teami think we are looking at the proboscis of the mosquito. mosquitoes are covered in modified setae called scales. these kind of make it look like a pinecone. the large areas to the side of the center tube are the eyes.
- 1:10 pm
- GuestDo we know how many facets there are? WOW!
Bugscope Teamthere are likely a few thousand. some large wasps can have 30,000 ommatidia per eye
- GuestCool close ups of the eye!
Bugscope Teamwe can see that they are slightly shrunken, dried out a bit from the way they were when the mosquito was alive]
- TeacherDoes each facet represent a human type eye?
Bugscope Teamthe individual ommatidia are not as good as human eyes, generally
- GuestHow does a mosquito hear?
Bugscope Teamthe antennae of a male mosquito have components that can sense the beat frequency of a female's wings; the component is called a Johnson's organ, and other insects may have them as well
- GuestDo insects have DNA?
Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- Bugscope Teamhere the mandibles are in the upper middle of the face
- Bugscope Teamthey open out like a gate, unlike our jaws, which go up and down
- TeacherI have 2 questions: do bugs have teeth, and do beetles live in colonies?
Bugscope Teambugs do not have teeth but they can have hardened mandibles
Bugscope Teamthey don't have teeth, but they do have mandibles that are very similar in function.
Bugscope Teamsome beetles do live in colonies
Bugscope Teamthese are the ambrosia beetles, there is a species that have a similar caste structure that we see in honey bees. Reproductive female with worker females.
- 1:15 pm
- GuestWhat is a borer?
Bugscope Teamin this case borer is referring to wood borer, they bore holes into wood materials and some feed on the wood, and others may cultivate fungus in the tunnels created and feed on that.
- Teachercan you show us a mandible?
Bugscope Teamthe smooth things we see now are this borer's mandibles
- GuestWhat does a mosquito bite you with?
Bugscope Teamfemale mosquitoes bite, and they do that using a muscular mouthpart called a fascicle that has four cutting components in it as well as a siphon tube and another part I am not sure about
Bugscope Teamthe bite is more similar to a needle injection
- Bugscope Teamthe fascicle comes out of the proboscis, which is like a sheath
- GuestYikes!! We dont like needles.
Bugscope Teamyou can hardly feel it
- GuestWe feel the itch though
- GuestWhy does it make you itch?
Bugscope Teamwe think it is because we have a reaction to the mosquito's saliva, which comes through another small vein in the siphon tube and keeps our blood from clotting
- GuestWhat is the hairy stuff surrounding the mandibles?
Bugscope Teama lot of those are indeed bug hairs, which we call setae. They help the beetle to sense what is going on around it, usually for sense of touch.
- 1:20 pm
- TeacherCan you explain the beetle diet?
Bugscope Teambeetles are opportunists and also a super huge group or family of insects; so they eat all kinds of stuff depending on what kind of beetle they are
- Bugscope Teamthe ship timber beetles do not eat wood; they feed on a fungus that the female adult has in a pouch near her ovipositor so that it gets attached to the eggs as they are laid\
- TeacherWhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a claw -- one of the borer's claws
- GuestIs there a pad that helps him hold on like an ant?
Bugscope Teamgreat question! this one does not seem to have that pad, which is called a pulvillus and is covered with tenent setae
- GuestWhat are the spikes on the legs for?
Bugscope Teamthey are mechanosensory setae responsible for sense of touch
- TeacherWhere do moscetos live?
Bugscope Teamthey like wet places like streams, ponds, marshes usually because that is where they lay their eggs
Bugscope Teamsome of them like standing water, so buckets of water that's been left out, or clogged gutters are also areas where mosquitoes can breed
- GuestDoes it have three moving parts in it's claw?
Bugscope Teamsome claws move and some do not. with the ones that move -- open and close -- there is an internal tendon-like thing called an unguitractor that helps make that happen
- Guestdo they have segmented legs?
Bugscope Teamyes they do! here we see only a few segments
- GuestDoes it have hairs coming out of it?
Bugscope Teamyes those are used mostly for touch-sensing; they are mechanosensory
- 1:26 pm
- GuestWhy does the borer claw look like a pick ax? Looks like
Bugscope Teamthat is probably its relaxed or actually maybe the opposite, its constricted shape. we were impressed that it looks like it has serrations on the inner sides
- Bugscope Teamso cute! a baby ladybug
- Teacherthe legs look hollow, are they?
Bugscope Teamthey are filled with nerves and muscles bathed in hemolymph
- Guestnot so cute!
Bugscope Teamthey are predators and like to eat aphids, in particular
- GuestCute if your his momma!
- Teacherare their eyes?
Bugscope Teamthey have simple eyes as larvae. they look like round bumps on the sides of their head
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we find them covered with aphid bodies, like they've taken trophies
- Guesthaha E1
- GuestWhat are the spikes on his back almost like a stegasaurus>?
- Teacherwhat are the spikes on the back for?
Bugscope Teamlikely they help keep them from being easily eaten -- they're spines
- GuestIs the stemmata the eye?
Bugscope Teamyes!
Bugscope Teamwe can see at least two. the thing to the right and down is the antenna, which is fairly rudimentary, like the stemmata
- GuestDoes he have wings?
Bugscope Teamno. only adult insects (of all types) have wings
- GuestIs it the knobby looking thing?
Bugscope Teamthat is one of the antennae
- GuestWe say EWWWWWW!
Bugscope Teamhaha
- 1:31 pm
- TeacherWhy does a lady bug have spots?
Bugscope Teamthey have their bright red spots to warn other animals not to eat it. they dont taste/smell very good
- GuestDoes it look for food right when it comes out of the egg?
Bugscope Teampretty much. they may have a period in which they breathe, inflate a bit, and harden in the air
- GuestWhere is the eye?
Bugscope Teamthere are at least two but they are hard to distinguish. one is above center and to the left.
- Teacherwe are interested in what this is?
- GuestWhat is the part that looks like spaghetti?
- GuestWhy do they call boy lady bugs "lady bugs?"
Bugscope TeamIt's in reference to Mary, mother of Jesus, and in Britain, they became known as Our lady's beetle. The proper colloquial name for ladybugs is ladybird beetle, or lady beetle.
- GuestWe are amazed that it is only as wide as one hair.
- Guestwhat is a flying spaghetti monster?!!!!
Bugscope TeamFSM. those are not really flyting spaghety
- GuestThank you for your excellent answer about lady bugs.
- 1:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamboys have spots
- GuestDo all insects have segmented legs?
Bugscope Teamyup.
Bugscope Teamall arthropods in fact. crabs, spiders, scorpions. arthropods mean jointed legs
- GuestCan we see a FSM leg?
Bugscope Teamthey're called noodly appendages
- Guestback to ladybugs, do boys not have spots?
Bugscope Teamthey do, in general, males look largely similar to females. there are species where the males don't look like females, and not all ladybird beetles have spots.
- Teachercan you tell us about this type of insect?
- TeacherWhat do FSM's eat?
- GuestLooking quite "noodly" Gluten free?
Bugscope Teamhaha not sure
- Bugscope Teamthey are actually.,
- GuestOh good!
- Bugscope Teamwe think they are a kind of plant spore-like body that flies through the air
- Bugscope Teamthey get picked up by wind currents
- 1:42 pm
- GuestWhy is it called a spaghetti monster? Do they have wings?
Bugscope Teamthey are called spaghetti monsr\t
- Bugscope Teamsorry totallyt \
- GuestHow many legs do they have?
Bugscope Teaminsects all have 6 legs. arachnids (spiders, ticks, scorpions) have 8 (some juveniles with 6).
- Bugscope Teamcannot type
- Bugscope Teamspaghetti monst
- Bugscope Teamstill cannot type
- Guestno worries!
Bugscope Teamthis is a ladybug's compound eye
- GuestThe 12 fingers body part?
Bugscope Teamthat was a palp on the ship timber beetle
- GuestMy bad, sorry
- GuestIsn't a palp the part they eat with?
Bugscope Teamyes usually
- Bugscope Teampalps are like forks and spoons that can taste your food for you before you eat it
- GuestAre those sensory spikes?
- Bugscope Teambut some have other purposes
- 1:47 pm
- GuestCan we see the ant claw before our time is over?
- Bugscope TeamCate thinks this is mineral and not pollen. She may be correct.
- Bugscope Teampollen can look different depending on the plant it came from. ragweed looks like spiky balls
- Bugscope Teamlily pollen grains look like deflated footballs
- Bugscope Teamthe spiky ragweed pollen grains, you can imagine, would be great for getting on clothing or fur so it can move to other places with ease
- GuestYou read our minds! These look like intricate ladders.
- Bugscope Teamessential...
- Bugscope Teamif we had no bees at all a lot of the fruit we eat would not exist
- Teachercan you tell us about these and how they get the color?
Bugscope Teamscales can have colour granules ingrained which is partially responsible for some of the colours (i think orange might be in this category). Other colours are created with the way light reflects and refracts off the microstructures of the scales.
- 1:52 pm
- GuestWhy are there holes in the butterflies wings?
Bugscope Teamthe holes make the wing scales much lighter; likely they also help hold air; they are analogous to feathers in some ways
- Bugscope Teamscales also have a purpose in protecting butterflies, moths, skippers, silverfish, and mosquitoes from spider webs
- GuestTravel or fly?
- GuestAre scales different sizes in different insects wings?
Bugscope Teamthere are scales of different size on just one insect. They can sometimes be long and skinny, and sometimes more like a potato chip like here
Bugscope Teamthey are the insect's version of hairs
- Teacherhow are buttrtflies eyes work compared to human eyes? do they see well?
Bugscope Teamthey see very well, but differently from humans. they have many ommatidia, or facets, in their eyes that allow them to see movement better than we can
Bugscope Teambetter movement detection, worse resolution
- GuestHow fast can butterflies travel?
Bugscope Teamit varies by the butterfly; I think it takes a few months for Monarchs to fly hundreds of miles to Mexico. they probably take advantage of wind currents as well, so it is traveling
- GuestThank you~~
- GuestWhere is the sticky pad?
Bugscope Teamthis may not have a sticky pad; instead it may have what is called an arolium
- GuestWhat are the two swords on the side used for?
Bugscope Teamthey are used kind of the same way we use our fingers, or our hands
- 1:57 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe swords are the claws
- Teacherare their bodies covered in this?
Bugscope Teamonly if they have become gunked up with bacteria, and likely then after they died
- GuestWhy does it look like spider webs?
Bugscope Teamthe parts that did not dry out look like that; the more jelly-like fluid is gone
- GuestWhat is biofilm
Bugscope Teambioflim is secreted by bacteria; it protects the bacteria, which can swim around in it
Bugscope Teamoops biofilm
- TeacherDo the ant satae work like the other insect satea?
Bugscope Teammostly, setae are shaped mostly by function.
- Bugscope Teambiofilm can be dangerous to humans because it can protect bad bacteria from getting washed off or fruits and vegetables
- Bugscope Teamthanks for joining us today for bugscope
- TeacherThats a rap! Thank you so much for showing us this great information. We loved it!!
Bugscope TeamThank you, Mr D!
- Bugscope Teamthank you!
- GuestThanks that was great!
- GuestWonderful!! Thank you. We learned a lot.
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-009
- Bugscope Teambelow is your member page, which has a transcript and some images from this session
- TeacherWe'll be looking at this quite a bit I think.
- 2:03 pm