Connected on 2014-10-06 11:00:00
from Contra Costa County, California, United States
- 9:25 am
- Bugscope Teammicroscope is pumping down with sample in it; electron gun is coming up (normally it would already have been on); so far so good
- 10:02 am
- Bugscope Teamelectron beam is still coming up; close now
- 10:13 am
- 10:19 am
- 10:26 am
- Bugscope Teammaking presets!
- TeacherHere I am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Teacherso excited
- Bugscope Teamthings are working well
- Bugscope Teamwe would like to make some more presets, so if you can hold off on driving for a little while longer..,.
- 10:31 am
- 10:36 am
- 10:42 am
- Bugscope TeamWe are ready to roll!
- Bugscope TeamYEOMAN, you have control of the scope!
- Teacherok... can i please have 4 minutes?
- Bugscope Teamas much time as you'd like -- it's all yours
- Bugscope TeamSure. We're just letting you know we're done with the setup.
- 10:48 am
- TeacherThank you
- Bugscope Teamthis is a cute little leafhopper
- Teacherhe is pretty cute
- Bugscope Teamlike a Klingon
- Bugscope Teamit has pumping capacity in the center of its head (I don't know if it is a male or a female)
- Bugscope TeamYeoman you can select from the presets now, as well.
- 10:53 am
- Bugscope TeamThe pumping structure Scot is referring to is called a rostrum, or beak. It is the insects mouthparts and consists of a modified labium, or lower lip, which forms a sheath around the maxillary stylets, which are used to pierce plant tissue. All true bugs have this kind of modified mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamleafhoppers produce nanoparticles (250 to 400 nm in diameter) from their Malpighian tubules and 'anoint' themselves with them. The nanoparticles are called brochosomes.
- Bugscope Teamhere we see the mouthparts. leafhoppers are 'true bugs,' with piercing/sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a yellow butterfly
- Bugscope Teamat first I thought it was a moth
- Teachervery cool
- Bugscope Teamthere is a separate preset of its ommatidia -- the facets of the compound eye we are looking at
- Bugscope TeamThis is another type of true bug, a stink bug. you can see that it also has a rostrum for mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthis is another true bug -- a stinkbug!
- 10:59 am
- TeacherWhat is that bulb on the side of it's head
Bugscope Teamthose are its compound eyes!
Bugscope TeamEyes.
Bugscope TeamInsects typically have two compound eyes composed of many facets, called ommatidia
- TeacherWe are 2/3 graders so...we are making our best guesses
Bugscope TeamThat's good that your students are guessing. I've never smelled a stink bugs eye before... maybe they are a little stinkier than the rest of the bug ;)
- Bugscope Teamthe stink glands are on the ventral side of the body -- the underside, where the legs are. they are found beneath the second set of legs.\
- Teacheroh! We thought that might be his stink making glands
Bugscope TeamNot sure that those are visible. Josh could confirm, but I think they'd be at the other end of the body.
Bugscope TeamYes, the stink glands are located internally in the abdomen of the insect. I'm not sure where they open out at, but I suspect it might be at the "posterior end" of the insect... ads a whole other meaning to the term stink bug....
- TeacherHaha, that's funny.
- Bugscope Teamthe stink gland openings have absorbent tissue around them that is super cool looking if it is not covered with dried fluid, as it is today
- 11:04 am
- TeacherWe want to know if that is hair on the top of it's head?
Bugscope Teamwe're not supposed to call it hair, so we call it setae, or bristles, or spines. and then we give up and call it hair again
Bugscope TeamIn insects, hairs, or setae, often have sensory functions. because insects have an exoskeleton, they have to have modified parts of their exoskeleton to allow them to sense their external environment. Hairs can be mecanoreceptors (i.e. touch receptors), or chemoreceptors (smell sensors).
- Bugscope Teamsetae are very important to insects and other similar arthropods because they are used to help sense the environment
- Teachernow we are wondering how many of those little dots there are on the eyes
Bugscope TeamIve never counted... probably thousands. It varies between insects... some have fewer than 50
- TeacherWe are guessing 274,000
Bugscope TeamSounds like a good homework assignment... or punishment for someone being naughty in class! :)
Bugscope Teamhaha -- in this case I think about 3000 per compound eye. a dragonfly and some large hornets may have as many as 30,000 per compound eye
- Bugscope Teamsome ants will have twelve, or even fewer; some ants do not have eyes at all
- TeacherNow, we think this bee head looks like a monster
Bugscope TeamA fuzzy and adorable monster? :)
- 11:09 am
- TeacherHaha, fuzzy yes...and a little scary
- Bugscope Teamwe can see its tongue if we look down further
Bugscope TeamBee tongues are also used for sucking fluids, like true bug mouthparts, but are more similar to straws, where bug mouthparts are more similar to needles
Bugscope Teamthis one really is like a straw, and we can see that at the very tip\
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see where the labra part and the glossa is starting to show
- Teacherwhat does he use his tongue for?
Bugscope Teamhe pushes it into flowers and extracts nectar
Bugscope TeamIts most likely a She. All worker bees are female
Bugscope Teamhaha Of course. Sorry.
- Bugscope Teamthis is actually a firefly, I believe
- Bugscope TeamI forgot to change the label, not recognizing it.
- Teacherpart
- Bugscope Teamwe are always happy to have new critters, especially in the dead of winter
- 11:14 am
- Teacherwhich part is the glowing
Bugscope TeamThe tip of the abdomen glows, usually the last two or three segments (I.e. the insects bottom)
- Bugscope Teamso cool looknig
- Bugscope Teamlooking...
- Teachervery cool
- Bugscope Teamyou can see a butterfly wing scale on the left...
- Teacheryes
- Teacherwhat is that hairy thing sticking out under the eye
Bugscope Teamunder the right eye, to the left, one of the antennae
Bugscope Teamthe other antenna is broken off
Bugscope Teamunder the antennae, but above the mouthparts there are long setae most likely used to help filter food. In case thats what you were asking about.
- Teacheryes that answers our questions perfectly
- Bugscope Teamthe wing scales are stuck to the right antenna, which is on the left because we are looking at the lightning bug from the front
- Bugscope TeamFireflies are so cool. We didn't get very many this year. I've heard there are concerns about their populations being reduced.
- Bugscope Teamsetae can see mechanosensory, meaning they can sense touch, or wind
- Bugscope TeamScott is going to move the image for you a bit.
- 11:20 am
- Bugscope TeamNow you can see the pollen better.
- Bugscope Teamsetae can be thermosensory as well, meaning they sense temperature, like hot and cold
- Bugscope Teamwe often see spikey pollen grains like this
- Bugscope TeamI thought they were from ragweed, but it may be that lots of pollen look like that
- Bugscope Teamyou can se two curved claws here, and above them are deflated little bags that can be inflated to help the stinkbug hold onto surfaces
- Bugscope Teamthe claws can open and close using a tendon called an unguitractor
- TeacherSo what are those long things hanging off the claws
Bugscope Teamthe long things are mechanosensory setae that let the insect know when it has touched something
- 11:25 am
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin like we do. instead they have an exoskeleton, which is kind of like if you were wearing armor all of the time
- TeacherThank you so much for letting us look at these bugs up close!
- Bugscope Teamthe setae stick through the armor and help the insects sense touch, wind, hot/cold, and all kinds of smells
- Bugscope TeamThank you for logging in today!
- Bugscope Teamthey are so cool looking!
- Teacherwe were surprised to see that these bugs looked like vampires and monsters
Bugscope TeamJust in time for Halloween.
Bugscope TeamFortunately, many of them are quite harmless and even beneficial to us.
Bugscope TeamI personally think they're cuter than puppies, but maybe thats just me :)
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-065
- Bugscope Teamthis is your member page for today's session
- TeacherGREAT!
- Bugscope Teamsy
- Bugscope TeamYaya
- Bugscope Teamyay! cannot
- Bugscope Teamtype
- Bugscope TeamScott has fumblefingers today.
- Bugscope Teamsee you next year?
- TeacherYes, we are going to talk about the things they do for the environment later today
Bugscope TeamThey do far more than people imagine and are incredibly important for our food supply.
- 11:31 am
- Bugscope Teamtime to shut down?
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
- TeacherSure, where do I provide feedback? That was amazing! The kids loved it
Bugscope TeamA link should be in a message from Kendra when you were first scheduled. But Scott is looking it up to paste it here.
Bugscope TeamI can resend the original message that should have the link in it.
Bugscope TeamOoops. Maybe not here. Check your mail later.
- Bugscope TeamAwesome!
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- TeacherThank you I will! I really appreciate it...that was great!
Bugscope TeamWe hope you'll come back again soon!
- Bugscope TeamK I am shutting us down...
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
