Connected on 2007-10-08 14:30:00 from Milwaukee, WI, US
- 1:36pm
- Bugscope Team session enabled, rxl started, waiting for scope vac...
- 1:50pm
- Bugscope Team vac taking too long, still stuck above 2.0, taking out cricket, trying the vac again.
- Bugscope Team working! 1.9, 1.8...
- 2:00pm
- Bugscope Team beam on, finding presets
- 2:05pm
- 2:10pm
- 2:20pm
- Bugscope Team done with presets, we are ready!
- 2:26pm
- Bugscope Team hi michele, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team hello!
- Teacher oooh...Ilike this new format :)
- Bugscope Team we do too ;)
- Teacher I will be with you all in about 5 minutes or so - I have to get my class settled and introduced to Bugscope ":)
- Bugscope Team if you have any quetsions please go ahead and ask. you can start controlling the scope anytime.
- Bugscope Team ah, okay, take your time, we will be here
- 2:33pm
- Bugscope Team after the session we are gonna grill it up for lunch
- Bugscope Team never mind that, i was talking about the praying chicken head, which we are NOT going to be eating...
- Bugscope Team heh
- Bugscope Team praying chicken head is another term for praying mantis
- 2:39pm
- Bugscope Team Scott isn't on board today?
- Bugscope Team scott is in a meeting, so he will not be here for this session
- Teacher What are these hairs on the body?
- Bugscope Team the hairs are called setae, they help the insect sense it's environment
- Bugscope Team insects are very hairy, but they need them to function
- Bugscope Team it is suprising how many hairs are on insects...
- Bugscope Team focus can be a bit tricky. try focusing in one direction, if it gets worse, go the other way...
- Bugscope Team since they have exoskeletons, they can't feel things or sense things like we do, so they have these setae (or seta sing.) that are attached to nerves and let them know what is going on
- 2:45pm
- Bugscope Team whoa. gnarley looking claw here...
- Bugscope Team so this is some sort of flying insect, we weren't able to classify it
- Teacher What is the claw's function?
Bugscope Team the claw is used to help direct food to the insects mouth, at least that is one use.
- Teacher How do the claw hindges stay together?
Bugscope Team they are linked the same way crab legs are or lobster legs
- Bugscope Team it can close together so it grasps things like clamps I believe
- Teacher which others? any we would recognize?
Bugscope Team the praying mantis (AKA praying chicken head) has claws too, i think you can see them in this sample...
- Bugscope Team beetles will have them like lady bugs and june bugs
- Bugscope Team which are both on this sample
- 2:50pm
- Bugscope Team if you were wondering, we found out today that according to wikipedia, another name for the praying mantis is the praying chicken head
- Teacher We were, thank you
- Bugscope Team I was speculating earlier that I think the reason behind it is when the praying mantis has his head cut off by the female, he is still able to perform activities like a chicken will run around with its head cut off
- Bugscope Team yeah, but he still won't do the dishes
- Teacher Are those little hairs on each of the eyes?
Bugscope Team yes, many compound eyes on insects have setae on them. preset #4 shows this very well...
- Bugscope Team if you try to bring it into focus a little better we can try to see, we know it isn't the easiest thing to do
- Bugscope Team if that does not go well preset 4 has a fuit fly eye with hairs
- Bugscope Team here we see a part of the compound of of a fruit fly
- Teacher Why do insects need hairs on their eyes? Do they function the same as the body hairs?
Bugscope Team it helps them detect changes in the wind because they need to think fast, like how they know to move away when a fly swatter is coming at them
- Bugscope Team and as a characteristic of most flying insects, there are setae in between the facets or ommatidia
- Bugscope Team sometimes if the sample is too close to the detector, the image cannot focus well... but this preset looks great! see all the setae inbetween each facet of the compund eye
- Teacher ... and what are facets and ommatidia?
Bugscope Team those are the little bumps
Bugscope Team the insect compound eye is made up of individual eye facets, called ommatidia
- 2:55pm
- Bugscope Team they see in image in each of those facets
- Teacher How many are on one eye? Does every fly have the same number of them?
- Bugscope Team with the more the insect relies on their eyes, the more ommatidia there will be
- Bugscope Team so something like an ant will have fewer than a fly
- Teacher so some rely on their eyes more than others?
Bugscope Team thats exactly right
- Bugscope Team you can see a bump on the top of its head as well, these are occuli which detect the movement of the sun
Bugscope Team In addition to navigation, I believe the ocelli also triangulate the position of the sun to help them know their absolute orientation. e.g. am I flying right side up, sideways, etc.
- Teacher why do they need to detect the movement of the sun? why is this important?
Bugscope Team it is theoriezed that some birds use the setting of the sun as a compass, maybe some bugs do the same?
- 3:00pm
- Bugscope Team probably so they know not to fly at a certain time, like when predators are out
- Bugscope Team but your guess is as good as mine really
- Teacher is it true that flies puke when they land?
Bugscope Team Yes, but instead of throwing up food, they're just regurgitating digestive juices. The juices dissolve the food they throw up on and then they suck it back up like a milk-shake so they don't need teeth
- Bugscope Team flies secrete saliva whenever they attempt to feed, but they don't attempt to feed every time they land.
- Bugscope Team so partially that is true
- Teacher What are the black spots?
Bugscope Team those are holes in the scales of the butterfly. the scales are very thin, to help keep the scales light, and some are fragile and some have holes in them...
- Bugscope Team these are butterfly scales
- Teacher what is their function or do they have a function?
Bugscope Team the scales' shape maximizes their surface area while minimizing the weight. that means they get lots of lift from their wing strokes without getting weighed down. the reason for the detachable scales is likely so that if they fly into a spider's web they can shed some scales and break free
- Teacher is there a head on this specimen or is this just a wing?
Bugscope Team just a piece of wing
- Bugscope Team i had to paint with silver paint around the piece of wing so it would help ground the current, butterfly wings like to charge up
- 3:06pm
- Bugscope Team ah, here is the lovely praying chicken head!
- Teacher What are the top left spikey things?
- Bugscope Team the forelegs are used to hold insects while they are being eaten
- Bugscope Team they look very sharp too
- Teacher what is the highest magnification we can go?
Bugscope Team this ESEM can go up to 600,000x, but for these big bugs, i would say 20,000x would be maximum and still get a somewhat decent image...
- Bugscope Team the butterfly scales were at 21,000x, and that image looks real nice!
- 3:11pm
- Teacher What does haltere mean?
Bugscope Team the haltere is used to help the insect balance itself during flight.
- Teacher we can't see an image, it is all black. What do we do?
Bugscope Team try hitting F5, or refresh
Bugscope Team it is often only temporary. if it lasts longer than ~5 seconds, then refreshing does the trick
- Bugscope Team it beats against its body as it flies
- Bugscope Team the image will black out occasionally, refresh should always fix it.
- Teacher thank you
- Teacher Do the hairs serve the same purpose here?
Bugscope Team i'm not sure, i wish annie (entomologiest) was here. but yes, i do think the hairs are used for some type of sensory, even on the fast moving haltere...
- Bugscope Team you are doing a great job as always controlling the scope
- Teacher are there only 2 haltere's on the body?
Bugscope Team yes, my recollection is that they are where the 2nd pair of wings would be if they had 4 wings
- Bugscope Team i've heard the answer many times before....
- 3:16pm
- Teacher What are the big roud t
- Teacher what are the big round things between the eyes?
Bugscope Team those are the facets of the compound eye, also called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team can we zoom out so we can see them again?
- Bugscope Team well this is the mouth area of the insect
- Bugscope Team these are the antennae
- Bugscope Team yep, Cate got it. Antennae
- Bugscope Team the contrast may act kind of funny around here because they are charging
- Bugscope Team image could use some focus adjustment to get the features looking sharp again
- Bugscope Team oh, sorry, you mean not IN the compound eye, but between the two eyes. sorry i'm wrong...
- Bugscope Team these are just some features I thought looked cool on the arm of the praying mantis
- Teacher what is that white thing?
- Bugscope Team they look like setae wings type things... wetae...
- Teacher what do they do?
- Bugscope Team that white thing coming at us is just another seta
- 3:21pm
- Teacher how many legs do praying chickens have?
Bugscope Team being insects they have 6
- Teacher heads*
- Teacher wow!
- Bugscope Team these are the top 2 that are the praying arms
- Bugscope Team the other 4 are like hte hind legs
- Bugscope Team i hope not
- Bugscope Team you can see part of the claw here
- Teacher what kind of food do they eat
Bugscope Team Praying mantis eat other insects
- Teacher ?
- Teacher and do these puke when they land too?
Bugscope Team no, the praying mantis secures it's food with those fore-arms full of spikes then slowly devours the prey with its mouthparts
- Bugscope Team bigger ones can eat small birds and reptiles and even some mammals
- Teacher whoaaaaaaaa
- Teacher where do the ones that can eat these birds live? do they eat the whole bird?
Bugscope Team check out this wikipedia article, it talks about the praying mantis diet a bit...
- Bugscope Team yes, there are some rediculously large praying chicken heads running around in this world...
- 3:27pm
- Teacher what geographical location?!
Bugscope Team I couldn't find any specifics on where the ones that eat birds live. It didn't sound like it was specific to one species though, so it might be more widespread.
Bugscope Team Wikipedia says there are approximately 2,000 praying species worldwide, the majority are found in Asia
- Teacher and how big can they get?
Bugscope Team look at this one, it is the size of your hand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NG-PrayingMantis.jpg
- Bugscope Team ack! here is that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praying_mantis
- Bugscope Team they live in all parts of the world, but I'm not sure where they are biggest, or how big they get
- Teacher hmmmm
- Teacher Well folks - we have to go now! Thanks for your time and answers! The future teachers had a great time! Thanks - Michele Korb, Instructor
- Bugscope Team thank you, great job driving michele!!!
- Bugscope Team bye thanks, and see you next semester
- Bugscope Team we hope you like the new intreface, chas worked very hard on it.
- Bugscope Team oh, coolness...
- Bugscope Team oh wow, tell them they were rgeat!
- Bugscope Team great*
- Teacher Yes - see you next semester.
