Connected on 2014-11-18 10:30:00
from Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States
- 9:11 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is in the 'scope and pppumping down
- 9:26 am
- 9:32 am
- 9:38 am
- 9:45 am
- 9:52 am
- Bugscope Teamnow we're making presets for today's session
- 9:57 am
- 10:04 am
- 10:10 am
- 10:16 am
- 10:23 am
- Bugscope Teamhello
- Bugscope TeamGreetings.
- Bugscope TeamWe are ready here. Mrs. Haworth, you have control of the scope.
- 10:28 am
- Bugscope TeamIf you've done this before, then you know what to do. If this is your first time - or need a refresher, let me know and I'll give you some pointers.
- Bugscope Teamwasp eye facets
- Bugscope Teamommatidia
- TeacherGood morning
- Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome back!
- Bugscope TeamScott is driving around a bit, but feel free to take control at any time. The presets to the left are a good place to start. Click the blue arrow to reveal them.
- Bugscope TeamGreetings!
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know, of course, whenever you have cuestiones.
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see the venom pores, as far as I can tell -- I looked this morning
- 10:33 am
- Bugscope Team(the pointy crossed things here are the fangs)
- Bugscope Teamthe large fibers are fibers from a plant, likely, not web
- Bugscope Teamthe fangs are at the ends of the chelicers, or chelicerae
- Bugscope Teamif we were able to see it from the other direction, we'd see that the chelicers originate just under the eyes
- TeacherGood morning
- Bugscope TeamGood morning! Can you see this?
- TeacherYes, we were disconnected for a minute, but we're back now.
- Bugscope Teamsweet!
- Bugscope TeamGlad you're back!
- 10:39 am
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any questions, need any help with anything, ...
- Bugscope Teamyou know that you can choose from any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- TeacherWhat type of spider is this?
Bugscope Teamnot really sure -- we're not good with spiders -- it is apparently a female...
- Bugscope Teammales have large palps, and I believe, if we check lower on the cephalothorax, we'll see two gonopores.
- TeacherHow do you tell what gender it is?
Bugscope Teammale palps are larger, usually, like boxing gloves, whereas these are small (the things that resemble limbs on either side of the mouth)
- 10:44 am
- TeacherCan me move down to the abdomen/
Bugscope TeamAre you able to click on the image?
Bugscope TeamJust click on a point to move down, and it should put the point you click into the center of the next picture. Scott is moving for you now.
Bugscope TeamIf that isn't working for you, please let us know. Each time web browsers get updated, we need to revisit things because some things stop working.
- Bugscope Teamspiders can sense when venom (from another spider, for example) has entered a particular limb, and they can selectively autotomize that limb
- Bugscope Teamif these are gonopores they are actually on the abdomen, not the cephalothorax
- TeacherOk, thanks
- TeacherIt seems to move the image up, not down when I click on it.
Bugscope Teamit is set up to center wherever you click, so it could move up
Bugscope TeamIt depends on where you click. It isn't like swiping on a smartphone. If you click in the upper right corner, what is in that corner will be in the center. If you click in the middle at the top, the image moves down. We're using the idea of "click to center".
Bugscope TeamCorrection: it is sort of like swiping on a smartphone, only you can't drag them image (yet).
- Bugscope Teamthe cephalothorax is hardened, whereas the abdomen is soft, so if we do not critical point dry the spider from ethanol, the abdomen will shrivel up
- Bugscope TeamTo see the other specimens we have for you, you can click on the blue circle with the left-pointing arrow. This should slide the presets into view. You just click on one of the presets to jump to that spot. (Of course you can stay on the spider as long as you want!!)
- 10:52 am
- Bugscope TeamNice! The assassin bug's eye!
- Bugscope Teamassassin bug compound eye
- Bugscope TeamIt is surrounded by lots of tiny "hairs" we call setae.
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the individual facets -- the ommatidia
- Bugscope TeamAnd, there appear to be little lumps of dust on the eye, too.
- Bugscope TeamIf you take the magnification down (by clicking on the red "-" by the word Magnification) you can see most or possibly all of the head.
- TeacherAre the hairs around the eye purely sensory?
Bugscope Teammost of those hairs are for sense of touch, yes
Bugscope Teamsome of them are what are called the 'vestiture,' which might help with identification of like species, for example
- Bugscope Teamthey feed similar to the way spiders do
- 10:57 am
- Bugscope Teamthey inject venom that dissolves the insides of their prey so they can suck it all up like a protein shake
- TeacherWhat do they primarily feed on/
Bugscope Teamany smaller insects it can grab. not sure if it likes certain ones more
Bugscope TeamThey will try to attack just about anything that moves - though they're only successful with other insects. There was a large one on the frame of a door I was trying to walk through and it kept eyeing me and extending its proboscis like it want to eat me. I guess it figured if it could get me, it was set for life!
Bugscope Teamtaking care of the family, on into the future
- Bugscope Teamthey are 'true bugs,' and one of the criteria for that is the piercing/sucking mouthparts, like those of a stinkbug, for example
- TeacherHow big can these insects get?
Bugscope TeamThe assassin bug that tried to attack me (well, that sat on the door and eyed me greedily) was approximately 1 inch (2.5cm) long, not counting its proboscis.
- Bugscope Teamwheelbugs, for example, are another type of assassin bugs -- the kind that look kind of like a stegosaurus slash insect
- Bugscope Teamthey can be a couple of inches long no problem, even here in Illinois]
- 11:04 am
- TeacherWouldn't want to encounter a larger one! Especially if they think they can take us on?
Bugscope Teamyeah they are kind of cranky
Bugscope Teamhahaha! Their bite can be painful and dangerous for people who have allergic reactions to stings and the like. My assassin bug was one of the "wheelbugs" that Scott mentions, and looking at pictures of it from my phone, I'd say it was actually a bit longer than an inch, maybe 1.25-1.5 inches.
- TeacherHow many different species of assassin bugs are there?
Bugscope Teamthere are said to be about 7000 species in about 1000 genera
- Bugscope Teamsome ants have very few ommatidia -- you can easily count them, like twelve, for example
- Bugscope Teamthis one has a lot. some ants do not bother to have eyes at all
- Bugscope Teamthey communicate and respond to chemical signals, which seem to have the highest priority
- Bugscope Teamso for example if you brushed the scent of a dead ant onto a live one, the scavenger ants that clean up the next will take that live ant away even if it is struggling
- 11:10 am
- Bugscope Teamcool how the facets are scarred up
Bugscope Teamit was either in some fights, or it was rolled around a bit after it died
- Bugscope Teamthey seem to be more like crystals in some species, whereas in other species they have fine features -- as in the moth ommatidia in another preset today
- Bugscope Teamthey can also get caught in death spirals, in which they follow a scent, like a food scent, in a circle until they die of exhaustion
Bugscope TeamProcessionary caterpillars will do this too.
Bugscope Teamhttp://io9.com/heres-a-weirdly-inspirational-story-of-caterpillar-tort-1592903437
- Bugscope TeamAre things stuck?
- Bugscope Teamhere are moth ommatidia, for comparison
- Bugscope Teamwe think that the tiny dots, which are on the nanoscale, help direct the light into the ommatidium and thus into the visual portion of the brain
- 11:17 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is something else kind of cool we wanted you to see
- Bugscope TeamNice wing scale
- Bugscope Teamwe're pretty close up on a single moth scale
- Bugscope Teamyes this is from the same moth as is on the stub
- Bugscope Teamthe roughly horizontally oriented lines are ridges in the scale, and their spacing interferes with the wavelengths of visible light, producing what are called structural colors
Bugscope TeamOne note on this, most blue colors on butterflies are structural, not due to pigments.
- 11:23 am
- Bugscope Teamsomewhere recently I read that almost all of the blue in nature is structural
- Bugscope TeamMrs. Haworth, are you still there? Do you need some help?
- Bugscope Teamwas there a mutiny or some sort of uprising?
- 11:29 am
- Bugscope TeamMrs Haworth we're going to shut down soon...
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-055
- Bugscope Teambelow is the link to your session
- Bugscope Teamwe're visiting all of the presets so you will have them in the database
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the spinnerets
- Bugscope Teamand the spider ;eg
- Bugscope Teamand the eye of the true bug
- Bugscope Teamtoo bad I can't type
- Bugscope Teamspider
- Bugscope Teammold spore
- Bugscope Teamant body
- Bugscope Teamantenna of the ant, up close
- Bugscope Teamnostingerhere
- 11:34 am
- Bugscope TeamNice '80's hair.
- Bugscope TeamWing of squished bug under wasp leg.
- Bugscope Teamwing of squished aphid? beneath wasp leg
- 11:39 am
- Bugscope Teamwe're shutting down...