Connected on 2014-11-13 14:00:00
from Solano County, California, United States
- 1:15 pm
- Bugscope Teamsetting up 'scope
- 1:22 pm
- 1:29 pm
- 1:34 pm
- 1:40 pm
- Bugscope TeamChecking in :)
- Bugscope Teamk just a sec
- 1:45 pm
- Bugscope Teamno problem
- Bugscope Teamhere's your tick
- Bugscope Teamhere's the 'TJ sensory pit'
- Bugscope Team:)
- Bugscope Teamcan you zoom out a bit more?
- Bugscope Teamand here is the weird medallion on one of the sides (also found on the opposite side)
- Bugscope Teamzoom out?
- Bugscope Teamperfect
- Bugscope TeamTo be honest, I'm not sure what that is, but I have my book with me so I'll check it out
- 1:51 pm
- Bugscope TeamLooks like it's the spiracle plate
- Bugscope Teamso it's like a bunch of spiracles in one area?
- Bugscope Teama compound spiracle? :)
- Bugscope Teamlol sounds like it - I'm reading further into it
- 1:57 pm
- Bugscope TeamI hope the Josh type dude logs in today to see this.
- 2:02 pm
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamroom 9 has control of the 'scope now
- TeacherCan we zoom in on the eye? Can you tell us a little about it?
Bugscope Teamyou have control if you want
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a fruitfly
- Bugscope Teamwe can see one of its compound eyes very clearly
- Bugscope Teamto the lower right we see one of its antennae
- Bugscope Teamin the middle of the head, between the compound eyes, which have so many facets, we see the ocelli, which are simple eyes
- TeacherHow can a fly see in all directions?
Bugscope Teamusing eyes like this, with many small lenses
Bugscope TeamIt can't actually see in all directions without moving its body/head, but it has a wider field of vision than we do.
- 2:08 pm
- Bugscope TeamFun fact about fruit flies - Drosophila melanogaster is actually a vinegar fly not a fruit fly. They're commonly called fruit flies because they're found on rotting fruit - which produces vinegar (they're food source)
- Bugscope Teamtheir* food source
- TeacherIs that the eye that we are looking at?
Bugscope TeamIt is their compound eye. each of the individual squares is an ommatidia, which are the facets that make up the compound eye
- TeacherWhat the life span of a fly like this is?
Bugscope Team40 to 50 days total, including time spent as a larva and pupa
- TeacherIs this part of the exosceleton?
Bugscope Teamyes it is -- these are the jaws (mandibles) of a super tiony ant
- Bugscope Teamtiny
- Bugscope Teamant
- TeacherA student asks how do they turn their heads?
Bugscope Teamthat is why they have compound eyes, because with some insects it is not easy to turn their heads
Bugscope TeamThe only insect capable of really turning their head to the left and right would be a praying mantis
- Bugscope TeamThese are the mandibles of Strumigenys rostrata, a species of "plier ant" native to Illinois
- 2:13 pm
- TeacherHow many eyes does a fly have?
Bugscope Teamthey have two compound eyes, which can have hundreds of lenses, and they have three ocelli
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli -- the simple eyes -- do not register features very well
- Bugscope Teamant plier ant is reclining on her back
- TeacherIs that a tongue inside the ants mouth?
Bugscope Teamit has four feelers that are called palps
Bugscope Teamthe palps help them taste their food
- TeacherDo insects have a heart?
Bugscope Teamnot like we do
Bugscope Teamthey have an open circulatory system, so it is more like an oil pump inside a truck engine
- TeacherCan you tell us about the teeth of this ant?
Bugscope TeamYes I can! :)
Bugscope TeamThis species of ant is a specialist on tiny jumping insects called springtails. Because springtails are easily frightened and can jump quickly, these ants are highly specialized in both their morphology and behavior
Bugscope TeamThey can detect springtails within a few milimeters of their body, and when they detect one (usually by contact or smell, as they have very poor eyesight), they freeze, orient at an almost imperceptively slow speed towards the springtail, and open their mandibles to about 60 degrees. They then lock their mandibles in place and contract their mandibular closer muscles, storing up energy like spring. Once they get close enough, the springtail touches a set of trigger hairs inside their jaws, which releases the mandibles, kind of like a bear trap. the teeth help the ant mantain a strong grip on the springtail while they sting it to incapacitate it. once its knocked out they take it back to the colony to feed to their larvae.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a female mocquir
- Bugscope Teammosquito
- 2:19 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like donuts are pedicels, the bases of the antennae
- TeacherOn the mosquito what are the things by its eye?
Bugscope Teamso we can see its wraparound compound eyes
Bugscope TeamAre you refferring to the fuzzy stalks inside a deflated ball looking structure? those are the antennae
Bugscope Teamnow we see the proboscis and two palps
- Bugscope Teamwe are following the proboscis to its tip
- 2:24 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the tip of the fascicle is...
- Bugscope Team we don't have any fleas, but we have a tick
- TeacherCan we see the wings?
Bugscope Teamlet's see if we can...
Bugscope Teamthe wings!
Bugscope TeamA mosquito's body is covered in scales. similar to the bodies of butterflies. The scales probably help them escape spider webs.
- TeacherI have a request to see a flea. Can you tell us what insects we have to see?
Bugscope Teamwe have a tick, a moth, a robber fly, a stinkbug, a stonefly larva...
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see little scales- the flakey things
- TeacherAre those hair on the wings?
Bugscope Teamthe fringe-y things we see are the scales, which butterflies, moths, and silverfish have as well
- Bugscope Teamthere's a haltere in the middle of the screen. it beats opposite the wings
Bugscope Teamhalteres are reduced hindwings that act very much like gyroscopes and help stabilize flies while they are in flight.
- 2:30 pm
- TeacherHow may types of flies are their?
Bugscope TeamFlies are grouped into the Order Diptera - meaning 2 wings.
Bugscope TeamThere are multiple families within this order, but there are roughly 100,000 known species worldwide
- TeacherDo you have a roley poley bug? Do you know what the little white spots are on the roley poley bug underside?
Bugscope TeamWe do not have any in the microscope for this session. roley poley "bugs" are actually not even insects, but rather Isopods, a type of crustacean. they are more closely related to lobsters than insects.
Bugscope Teammaybe you are seeing eggs or little larvae on them?
- TeacherWhere do flies lay their eggs?
Bugscope TeamDepends upon the fly.
Bugscope TeamFruit flies will (somewhat obviously) go for fruit. The larva (maggots) look like and are about the same size as a grain of rice.
Bugscope TeamA wide variety of them lay eggs in decaying flesh.
Bugscope TeamI think they mostly like to lay their eggs on tuna salad sandwiches.
Bugscope TeamTrivia here: certain flowers rely on flies for pollination. Those flowers often release odors reminiscent of decaying corpses. Yum! (Don't give your date one of those for prom!)
- 2:35 pm
- TeacherHow far and what types of areas do flies travel?
Bugscope Teamthey are on every continent, I think, not sure about Antarctica
Bugscope Teammosquitos are a kind of fly. even their name means 'little flies': mosca ito
Bugscope Teamhaha but they are on Antarctica :) there are called Arctic Midges and they're wicked cool
- TeacherCan you show us the tick?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the capitulum -- the 'head' portion of the tick
- TeacherCan you tell us what we are seeing now?
- Bugscope TeamThere are wingless midges that live in the antarctic year round.
Bugscope TeamTDOT!!!!! ARGH.
Bugscope Team:D
Bugscope TeamThat's what I get for confirming they were midges and not "flies" per se before posting!!!!!
Bugscope TeamTdot, you need a midge rap. You got somethin'?
Bugscope TeamI don't know enough about midges to free style a midge rap
- Bugscope Teamit burrows into the host with that sharp part
- Bugscope Teamwe can see the recurved spines on the hypostome, in the middle, that help it keep buried in your skin
- Bugscope Teamthe things on the sides of the capitulum are palps that fold down when the tick feeds
- TeacherAre there particular fruits that the flies lay eggs in?
Bugscope TeamThey love bananas and apples, the two fruit I now have in my house. :(
Bugscope TeamThere's an invasive fruit fly from China that infests small fruit, particularly raspberries and blackberries. My research plots were full of them. They are going to be a *serious* economic pest for these fruits, and will probably put a large number of berry growers out of business.
- 2:41 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe tick is leaning against a log like a juvenile delinquent, but it is an adult, with eight legs
Bugscope TeamThe black legged tick is a delinquent...spreading disease
- TeacherWhere do flying insect migrate?
Bugscope TeamIf you mean for winter, many of them don't. Quite a number of them simply die in the winter time.
Bugscope TeamThis is often the life cycle of many butterflies and moths: they hatch from eggs in early summer, feed on plants up to the fall, overwinter as pupae, hatch in the spring, breed, die. Kind of depressing.
- Bugscope Teamthis is kind of like a wrist watch, but on both forearms, that ticks have
Bugscope Teamonly instead of telling time, it tells apart different chemicals like carbon dioxide, which it the air we (and many other animals) breath out
- Bugscope Teambreathe*
- 2:46 pm
- TeacherIs the claw on a fruit fly the same as a mantice? Can we see that part?
Bugscope TeamI'll drive there manually, just a sec
- Bugscope Teamthis is the fruitfly claw
- Bugscope Teamit is quite different from the raptorial forearms of mantises
- TeacherAre their baby fruit flies? And how do flys eat?
Bugscope TeamThe baby fruit flies are actually larva. They look like little white caterpillars, the size and shape of white rice grains.
Bugscope TeamThe larva have mandibles and eat by mashing the food before slurping it up.
Bugscope Teamnice comparison Daniel - if anyone has seen the Dreamworkds movie Flushed Away there is a little one line song in the movie "that's not rice it's maggots you're eating"
Bugscope TeamAlso if no one has seen Flushed Away, I highly recommend it - the movie great and has an awesome soundtrack
- 2:52 pm
- TeacherWhat the hairs do?
Bugscope TeamSome function as mechanoreceptors and allow the fly to have a sense of touch. The group of hairs below the two claws act like velcro and allow the fly to adhere to surfaces.
Bugscope Teamthe ones we see now with flat ends are the ones Josh is referring to that stick to surfaces
Bugscope Teamsome hairs are water sensing, some sense hot and cold, and some are touch or wind sensitive, as Josh said
Bugscope Teamsome sense chemicals by touch, and some sense chemicals in the air
Bugscope Teamsome hairs, actually called setae (see-tee), are scales
- Bugscope TeamThe previously mentioned arctic midge lives for 2 years as a larva but only about a week as an adult. if I remember correctly
- TeacherHow long do flies live?
Bugscope Teama Mayfly adult may only live a few hours.
Bugscope Teamsome flies live for weeks
Bugscope TeamCorrection, a Mayfly is not actually a fly but is in its own order, the Ephemeroptera. There are flies with similar adult lifespans though
Bugscope TeamEphemeroptera means that it is ephemeral, including being a fly
- TeacherWhat are the life span of a flea?
Bugscope TeamThe average adult life span is 2-3 months.
Bugscope TeamBut it it doesn't have a host (some animal to feed off of) then they may only live a few days
- Bugscope Teamfleas can live in carpet for many months and perhaps years before they are disturbed and hatch
- TeacherThank you so much for your time and our barrage of questions. We appreciate it.
- Bugscope TeamFleas also have larva that look kind of like caterpillars. in case no one mentioned that yet
- 2:57 pm
- Bugscope TeamThank you for connecting with us today!
- Bugscope TeamIt was awesome working with y'all today! I hope you learned a lot :)
- Bugscope TeamThanks for listening to my Plier ant spiel :) Hope you had fun!
- Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-066
- Bugscope Teamthis, below, is your member page for this session
- 3:05 pm
