Connected on 2015-02-05 18:30:00
from Alameda County, California, United States
- 6:14 pm
- Teacherjust getting ready for class :) will start chat after 4:30 pm
- Bugscope Teamcool please let me know if you get a chance if you can control the 'scope
- Bugscope TeamI can't tell if I have the control setting activated correctly.
- 6:20 pm
- TeacherI can try now :)
Bugscope Teamk please just try one of the presets
- Teachergoing fo rthe ant
- Teacherclikced on ANT
- Teacherclicked
- Bugscope Teamtry now
Bugscope Teamgot it
- Teacherworks
- Bugscope Teamthe settings are for some reason, after years, hard to figure out in this one place
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- 6:27 pm
- Bugscope Teamback in like 4 minutes
- Bugscope Teamk I am back
- 6:40 pm
- Teacherintroducing the plan and the scope...
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope Teamthis is a rolypoly, which is actually a crustacean
- Bugscope TeamHi Kim!
- GuestHello!
Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have questions for us
- Bugscope TeamHi!
- 6:48 pm
- TeacherHere we go...
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a closeup of an ant's mandibles
- Bugscope Teamthe ant is facing the right
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles (jaws) are serrated to help them cut things
- Bugscope Teamand you can see a bunch of sensory setae on the mandibles that let the ant know when something is touching it there
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see her compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamand her antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe background is doublestick carbon tape
- Bugscope Teammost ants are females that we see
- Bugscope Teamsetae are the things that resemble hairs
- Bugscope Teamall the workers are female
- Teacherhow do we know it is female? What are setae?
- Bugscope Teamsetae are important to insects, which do not have skin
- Bugscope Teammale reproductives can sometimes look drastically different than their female counterparts.
- 6:53 pm
- Bugscope Teaminstead of having skin and an internal skeleton with bones like we do, insects have an exoskeleton, like a shell, or like armor
- Bugscope Teamthey do not have bones either
- Bugscope Teamsee where the wing halves are laced together?
- GuestIn what way do they look different?
Bugscope Teamoften they have wings
Bugscope Teamthey will have a smaller head and longer antennae
- Bugscope Teambees and wasps have four wings -- two on each side
- Bugscope Teamwhen they are not flying their wings fold nicely so they can get into small spaces
- Bugscope Teambut when they fly they hook the fore- and hindwings together on each side
- 6:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the bee's head; it looks like it has giant buck teeth, but those are parts of the labrum, which covers and protects the glossa, which is what the tongue is called
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the right compound eye on the left
- Teacherhi. we are a group of students looking at the bee. what position is it in?
Bugscope Teamlooks like you're looking at the bee lying on its side
Bugscope Teamthe eye there is on the upper left, and the tube above that is the antenna
Bugscope Teamthe thing below the head is one of its legs (the bottom left of the image)
Bugscope Teamthe smooth part of the background is silver paint Cate put on to help ground the bee
- Teacherwhat are the hair filaments called and used for?
Bugscope Teamthey're called setae, and in bees they may be branched; they are often mechanosensory; in this case they may also help with thermoregulation
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pair of wings on one side
- 7:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow just one wing -- the tiny spines are microsetae
- Bugscope Teamthe blackened places are where liquids, like some kind of goo, are stuck to the wing
- Teacherwhat do the microsetae do? what is its purpose?
Bugscope Teammicrosetae are super small hairs that do not have a sensory function; in this case one of the things they do is prevent the wings, when they are wet, from sticking to a flat surface
- Teacherhello we are a new group
Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamspider head
- Bugscope Teamsee the eyes? the spider is facing the right
- Bugscope Teamthe head and thorax in spiders are fused into a cephalothorax, which is hardened
- Teacherare the eyes connected?
Bugscope Teamyes some of the eyes are connected
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen, in spiders, is not hardened, and it usually shrivels up when it dries
- Bugscope Teamthis is probably a female spider, judging from seeing a narrow palp in front of its head
- Teacherhow many body sections do spiders have?
Bugscope Teama cephalothorax, an abdomen, eight legs, and two palps, or pedipalps
- 7:08 pm
- Bugscope Teamthey also have two chelicers, or chelicerae, which is what the jaw-like elements are
- Bugscope Teamat the (perfect timing!) tip of the chelicers we see the fangs
- GuestDoes the spider have setae? since he has eight eyes does he need the extras sensory function?
Bugscope Teamyup, spiders also have lots of sensory hairs (setae), they are there since they won't be able to sense things they can't see otherwise, or even sense themselves
- Bugscope Teamwhen Cate made this sample for us she broke some of the legs away so we could see the face
- Bugscope Teamthose were plumose setae near the spinnerettes
- Bugscope Teamthese a stiffer less cool looking setae on a leg
- Bugscope Teamoops I killed my browser
- Bugscope Teamlost all of the chat, going to the other computer
- 7:15 pm
- Teacherare the legs kind of similar to crab legs?
Bugscope TeamI'
Bugscope Teamthe legs are not that much like crustacean legs; one thing spiders can do with their legs is autotomize them, which means they can make them drop off if they sense venom moving into them
- Teacherwe were asking about the parts of the legs
Bugscope Teamthank you
- Teacherhow many parts to the legs?
Bugscope Team8?
Bugscope Teamcoxa, trochanter, femur, patella, tibia, tarsus, and claws
Bugscope Teamman i hope i didn't miss anything
Bugscope Teamso they have one tarsus, or tarsomere, compared to insects?
Bugscope Teami want to say one. but i'm not super familiar with spider morphology
- Bugscope Teamlot of dirt on the cephalothorax
- Bugscope Teamsometimes spiders see quite well but usually not, I think; the sensory setae are thus very important
- Bugscope Teamthese are ommatidia, the individual facets of the compound eye
- Teacherwhy are the legs attached to the cephalorax and not the abdomen in a spider?
Bugscope Teamthe abdomen is soft, not much support; but insect limbs are attached to the thorax as well
- 7:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis the where the spinnerettes are
- Bugscope Teamthe spinnerettes are turned in toward each other as a result of drying after death
- TeacherI'm assuming they have stomachs? If so where would it be?
Bugscope Teamthe abdomen
- Teacherwhat are hamuli?
Bugscope Teamthey hook the wings together so that the wing beats are in sync
- Bugscope Teamspiders inject venom into their prey that dissolves the prey's internal organs, and they then suck it all out like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamoh wow, this is a really good shot of the hamuli
Bugscope Teamhaha Yeah I was stoked
- Bugscope Teamclips
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the specimen stub inside the vacuum chamber
- Bugscope Teamit is off to one side now
- Teacherwhat is a wing clip? what does it do?
Bugscope Teamthe hamuli are the little clips that hold the fore- and hindwings together when a bee or wasp flies
- 7:25 pm
- TeacherIs this ant missing a leg?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- TeacherI knew it!
- Bugscope Teamit is maybe hard to tell, but the ants are super tiny and it is tricky to handle them
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we put ethanol on a small paintbrush and use that to pick up tiny ants like those
- TeacherWhat is covering the setae? Pollen? water?
Bugscope Teamit's mostly just dust; if we found pollen we would show you
- Bugscope Teamthat ball-like thing is pollen
- Bugscope Teamunder the branched setae
- 7:30 pm
- TeacherAlso, why do insect eyes look like metal? (metallic)
Bugscope Teamthe shape and the orientation of each facet with respect to the others does that
- TeacherDo bees have hair or setae on their eye?
Bugscope Teamyes
Bugscope Teamwe call the hair setae, and they are often found on bee compound eyes
- TeacherIs this the roly poly's mouth?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Teacherwe are about to log off. thank you very much!
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny flat strands of fibrous material are fungal hyphae
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
- Teacherscott, go to yoga
Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teambye!
- GuestBye!
- Bugscope TeamBYe
- Bugscope Teambye!
- Bugscope Teamover and out
