Connected on 2008-05-30 14:00:00 from , SK, CA
- 1:50pm
- Bugscope Team this looks like a certain self anointing individual
- Bugscope Team coolooc
- Bugscope Team chasahc
- 1:56pm
- Bugscope Team gutenbergeregrebnetug
- Bugscope Team are we done with presets?
- Bugscope Team yeah until we find some more
- Bugscope Team ok
- Bugscope Team we are ready for St. Walburg school in canada!
- Bugscope Team you can unlockcolnu the session
- Bugscope Team session is unlocked ;)
- Bugscope Team spider ain't so good lookin'
- Bugscope Team Cataku did a good job with what we gave her.
- 2:01pm
- Bugscope Team gotta be a lot of mosquitos up there
- Bugscope Team yeah, hachet is a cool young adult book about a young boy who has to survive in the canadian wilderness, and in the story the mosquitoes almost drive him mad! great book
- 2:06pm
- Bugscope Team nice image
- Bugscope Team wasp pulvillus
- Bugscope Team preset?
- Bugscope Team sure
- Bugscope Team erus
- Guest hi
- Guest hi
- Guest sup
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope!
- Guest Hellow
- Guest hello
- Bugscope Team Hi! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Guest this is awesome
- Guest so what are we looking at
- Guest hi
- Guest this is a cool website
- Guest hi
- Guest wat is the werdest bug u ever seen
- Guest hello
- Guest hi
- Bugscope Team hello
- Guest hello
- Bugscope Team This is the tarsus of a wasp you sent -- the claw end of the tarsus.
- Bugscope Team this is a wasp, a close up of it's pulvillus
- Guest hi
- Guest how can you tell if the bug is male or female?
Bugscope Team that depends on what kind of bug it is. sometimes we can tell by how far apart the eyes are, others a good indicator is if it has an ovipositor, or if it has wings or not
- Guest are termites considered bugs?
- Guest cole:hi
- Guest what bug are we looking at?
- Guest do you like bugs
- Guest where do bug go in winter
- Guest how does a bumblebee fly?
- Bugscope Team with flies the eyes of males are often close together and those of females are far apart
- Bugscope Team hello, miss renwick, welcome to bugscope!
- Guest cool
- Bugscope Team but many times it is very difficult to impossible to tell without dissecting the insect
- Teacher Hello!
- Guest cool
- Guest sweet
- Guest are termites considered bugs?
- Guest wat do male mascetos eat
- 2:11pm
- Guest I don't know
- Bugscope Team a bumblebee attaches its fore- and hindwings together so it can fly more efficiently
- Bugscope Team miss renwick, you have control of the scope, you can move around at your will. if you have any questions, please ask, we are here to help
- Guest how big are the claws
- Bugscope Team male mosquitos eat nectar, or sometimes nothing
- Guest oooo ok
- Guest Are termites considered bugs?
- Guest what animal are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team you can take the mag down to see where you are
- Bugscope Team with spiders, the male is usually smaller than the female
- Guest I can they live with out eating any thing
- Guest why don't male moscitoes eat blood
- Bugscope Team oh yeah sorry termites are insects but not true bugs, of which there are relatively few
- Guest how close can you zoom in?
Bugscope Team the scope can magnify up to 600,000x, but for good images of bugs, 50x - 30,000x is a good range to stay in
- Guest why do bees have stingers
Bugscope Team it is a defense mechanism to protect the hive. wasps and some ants have stingers as well.
- Guest what kind of bug is this?
- Guest Why is there all those hairs in there mouth
Bugscope Team those hairs are called "setae" (see-tee), they are like cat whiskers, they help the bug to sense its environment
- Bugscope Team male mosquitos just pretty much need to breed and they are done
- Guest oh i see
- Guest awesome
- Bugscope Team this is a beetle, and the hairs are often sensory
- Guest kool
- Bugscope Team they do not have all of the same body systems as people
- Bugscope Team insects, for example, have their skeleton on the outside of the body
- Guest what r theyre body systems like
- Guest how come some bugs live near water but they can't go in it?
- Guest why do flys have so many little eyes?
Bugscope Team well, those little eyes are actually part of a larger eye, called a compound eye. the compound eye has many facets (small bumps) which are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team and their 'blood' does not carry oxygen
- Guest what is the difference between bumblebees and bees
- Bugscope Team compound eyes are made up of many facets (the little eyes) called ommatidia
- 2:16pm
- Guest Why do some caterpillers make people swell, or itch?
Bugscope Team some of them have glands that secrete a substance that is harmful to animals so they won't get eaten
- Bugscope Team I don't know what the difference is between bumblebees and bees -- we will have to look it up
- Bugscope Team bumblebees and sting more than once, while bees like honey bees will die when they sting you
- Bugscope Team the stinger of the honeybee is barbed and will stay in your
- Bugscope Team be sure and try changing the mag, like to a lower mag, if you wish, here
- Guest why do they die when they sting you
Bugscope Team the barbed stinger stays in whatever it stings--when they sting, it is literally ripped out of them (kamikaze death)
- Guest cool
- Guest ?
- Student Why do spiders hove 8 legs?
- Bugscope Team they die because the stinger is an organ they cannot live without - it tears away part of their body
- Guest Why is there all those hairs on the tounge
- Guest why do bumblebees die when they sting somone?
- Guest Why do termites eat wood but not other things?
- Guest how come some bugs live near the water but can't it can't go in it
- Bugscope Team insects are VERY hairy. those hairs are called setae (see-tee), they help the bug to sense its environment, kinda like cat whiskers.
- Bugscope Team termites have bacteria in their guts that allow them to digest cellulose
- Bugscope Team which is what wood is made of
- Guest wont it hurt if u have h;airs in ur eyes?
Bugscope Team well, it depends if you have nerve sensors in your eyes. i'm not sure if a fly compound eye has nerves in it. and they probably don't feel pain like humans do, anyway. maybe scott or cate or chas can answer better though...
- Guest What is cellulose
- Bugscope Team cellulose is what wood/paper are made of
- Bugscope Team it is not digestible by people, for example
- Bugscope Team it does not hurt insects to have hairs in their eyes
- Bugscope Team they are usually between the ommatidia anyway
- 2:22pm
- Bugscope Team this is a tiny wasp, and you can see a simple eye on top of the head
- Bugscope Team the simple eye is called an ocellus
- Bugscope Team you can see the jaws, which are hinged
- Bugscope Team and the eyes are very large but you can also see that the antennae are large as well
- Bugscope Team if you look at the shaft of the antenna you can see sensory pits that help the wasp smell the air
- Guest why do they need to smell the air?
Bugscope Team Wasps need to smell the air to find food, to find other wasps, and to find the right places to lay their eggs (if htey are a female wasp)
- Bugscope Team Hello all
- Bugscope Team Annie Good a Question about why the wasp needs to smell the air!
- Bugscope Team this is the antenna, and you can see the sensory pits
Bugscope Team I noticed that...hymenoptera have these indented sensory areas that are not usually found in other insect orders
- Guest wow
- Bugscope Team I just moved the 'scope there but please feel free to drive away -- this is your session
- Bugscope Team i've never tried, but I heard you can get pretty close to bees if you hold your breath because the bees will smell the carbon dioxide when you breath
- Bugscope Team the micron bar reads 43 microns, or 0.043 mm.
- Bugscope Team miss renwick, if you would prefer us to drive the scope, we can. we can also give control to your students as well! just let us know.
- 2:27pm
- Teacher that would be great
- Bugscope Team but we are not trying to take control away from you -- we can do this any day
- Teacher that's alright the students would love it if you could give them a tour
- Bugscope Team how about we give control to one of the students? who's first?
- Bugscope Team me me me
- Teacher Kate would liek to try it first
- Bugscope Team kate, you have control!
- Bugscope Team Kate has it now
- Bugscope Team you should see controls on the right side of your window
- Bugscope Team yay Kate!
- Guest What are the sensory pits for?
Bugscope Team The sensory pits help the wasp to smell its environment (at least that is the prevailing theory and it has been demonstrated in bees). Wasp, bees and ants are the only insects with the indented sensilla....this is actually the first time I have seen the sensory pits.
- Bugscope Team you can drive by clicking to center or by click to drive, but if you use click to drive remember to click to stop!
- Guest haha
- Bugscope Team that is the ocellus
- Bugscope Team the bump is an ocellus
- Bugscope Team one of the three ocelli
- Bugscope Team ah, check out on the top left, that's an ocelli, a simple eye
- Student do bugs chew there food?
Bugscope Team The insects that eat solid food chew their food, either with their maxillae and other moutparts, or with a set of "teeth" at the base of their esophagus.
- Bugscope Team ack, yes, an ocellus, my bad
- Guest what are the holes in his head?
- Bugscope Team some bugs chew their food and some suck it up through their probosces as a liquid
- Guest do all bugs have teeth
Bugscope Team Not all insects have teeth. Insects that consume liquid food (mosquitos, houseflies, aphids) don't need teeth because there is nothing to chew.
- Bugscope Team nice focus kate!!!
- Student that's cool
- Guest thank you
- Bugscope Team a true bug has piercing mouthparts that have two tubes -- one for saliva to be delivered through and one to suck up liquid
- Bugscope Team you can also click on a preset (lower right) and the scope will move to that preset
- Guest how many bugs are on earth
Bugscope Team many trillions, i'm sure, it's hard to say. many more bugs than humans, for sure.
- 2:32pm
- Student do bugs sleep
Bugscope Team This is actually not completely known. Almost all insects have times of day that they are inactive. They have circadia rhythms that tell their bodies when to look for food and when to sit still and hide. If you keep flies and bees active all the time, they can get sick. So we know they rest sometime each day. We don't know if it is actually sleep though. They don't close their eyes ;)
- Bugscope Team the background we see with the holes in it is the carbon doublestick tape the bugs are mounted on
- Student Where do bugs go when it's winter
Bugscope Team Some insects overwinter as eggs or pupae. Some overwinter as adults. They hibernate under logs or rocks or in leaf litter.
- Guest what is a pulvillus
- Guest I know spiders arn't bugs but... spiders spin webs right so what is their web made of and how do they get it?
Bugscope Team the web is made out of silk. the silk is made inside the spiders body as a liquid and it leaves the body through tubes called spinnerets when the liquid silk is exposed to the air it hardens. The spider uses it legs to pull the silk out.
- Guest Is there a bug as big as a human?
Bugscope Team Insects have extremely simple circulatory and respiratory systems. The result is that the laws of physics limit how large they can grow because their bodies cannot efficiently delivery oxygen and nutrients. So the answer is no, they don't get much larger, although some people think they were slightly larger millions of years ago when there was a greater percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere
- Guest well if they don't have teeth how do they chew there food
Bugscope Team They don't need to chew liquid food...you don't have to chew your milkshake, do you?
- Guest what is the bigest bug on earth
Bugscope Team The heaviest insect is the goliath beetle--a scarab that lives in Africa. The longest insect is a type of stick insect that lives in East Asia. And the biggest overall (in terms of size and weight) is the titan beetle, a longhorned beetles that lives in the Amazon rainforest.
- Guest why do mosqutoes drink blood
Bugscope Team well, it is for food. many insects have very unique ways of getting food, which is essential for survival. mosquitoes happen to feed on blood'
- Guest how long can bugs live for?
Bugscope Team that depends on the insect. some will live only a few days and some will live a little over a year
- Bugscope Team okay the pulvillus is the pad that in some insects is found between the claws or on some of the terminal tarsi (the 'forearm')
- Guest thank you for letting me control!
- Bugscope Team who wants to control next?
- Teacher can we turn the controls over to brookie?
- Bugscope Team the pulvillus sometimes has setae on it called tenent setae that are sticky and let the insect stick to vertical and overhead horizontal surfaces
- Guest haha
- Bugscope Team miss renwick, i'm showing that she is not active, did brooke login as another user?
- Bugscope Team oh wait, nevermind, she was on as a student, not a guest, silly me!
- Teacher as brookie instead of brooke
- Bugscope Team Brookie has control.
- Teacher no problem, thanks!
- 2:37pm
- Bugscope Team Let us know if you have any trouble, Brookie!
- Bugscope Team this is a tiny moth
- Bugscope Team someone rubbed its head and all of the scales are gone apparently
- Guest Did you recieve a jumping spider?
- Student ok!
- Bugscope Team yes we put the spider on the stub, to the west of this
- Student what is the frilly thing under its eye??
Bugscope Team Those are setae (insect hairs) that help the moth to sense the position of the head in relation to the rest of its body.
- Bugscope Team but with spiders sometimes it is hard to find good things to look at
- Bugscope Team under the eye are some scales
- Guest what makes the spider jump?
- Bugscope Team some longer scales, which are kind of like feathers
- Bugscope Team something tells me i want to stay away from all those big insects...
- Student Why are mosqitous born in the water??
Bugscope Team Female mosquitos lay their eggs in the water. I am not sure why and I am not sure if anyone has theories. Mosquitoes are fairly primitive flies, and often we find more primitive insects living in or around water. But no one really knows why.
- Guest The Tarantula is the biggest spider right?
Bugscope Team yes a type of tarantula: the goliath bird eating spider. But the goliath bird-eating spider is pretty harmless to humans, as are most species of tarantulas. They do carry venom in their fangs and have been known to bite humans when threatened, but the venom just causes swelling and mild pain for a few hours (like a wasp sting). Tarantula bites to humans are usually in self-defense and don't always contain spider venom - what is known as a "dry bite".
- Guest ?
- Bugscope Team mosquito eggs are laid in the water, and the first part of the mosquito's life is spent there
- Student what are the holes??
- Bugscope Team these are little ports on the last few segments of the centipede's body
- Student ok
- 2:42pm
- Bugscope Team we have read that they produce liquids when under stress -- to avoid being eaten, and we think that is what those portholes are -- the place they release the chemicals
- Student Do bugs have the same systems as humans?
Bugscope Team They have the same basic systems: nervous, circulatory, reproductive, and digestive.
- Guest why do catipillers turn into buterflys
- Student thats cool
- Bugscope Team liquid chemicals to keep ants, for example, from bothering them'
- Guest why do some bugs live by water when they can't go in it?
Bugscope Team Most insects need to drink water. Areas with water also support healthy plant populations, and other animals like to live near water too. As a results, you frequently see lots of herbivorus insects feed on the plants, you see predaceous insects that eat other insects, and you see insects that like to feed on vertebrates that visit the water to drink.
- Bugscope Team some bugs may eat bugs that come near the water to drink
- Guest what is the most dangerouse bug
Bugscope Team well, dangerous to who? humans? most insects are in fact very good for humans, they help to pollenate plants, or to kill off other insects that might destroy crops. insects are very important to this planet
- Bugscope Team sort of like lions eating elk when they go to drink
- Student it says that this is a house centipede is there any other kinds of centipedes?
- Guest Is there any possenise bugs that could be harmfull to humans
Bugscope Team The most harmful insect in the world (in fact the most dangerous animal in the world) is the mosquito which vectors very serious diseases.
- Guest interesting!
- Bugscope Team there are lots of other kinds but this is the only one on today's stub
- Guest can you crossbreed bugs?
Bugscope Team Not any more than you can crossbreed horses and cows. They maintain species boundaries just like the rest of the animal kingdom.
- Student thank you!
- Teacher can we pass the controls over to jacey?
- Bugscope Team the Amazonian giant centipede, is the largest existing species of centipede in the world, reaching over 30 cm (12 inches) in length.
- Bugscope Team you can crossbreed bugs like fruit flies, for example
- Bugscope Team jacey, you have control!
- Bugscope Team Jacey has got it!
- Bugscope Team brookie, great job driving the scope!
- Student thankyou
- Guest why are bee stings good for some diseases like ms?
Bugscope Team An enzyme in bee venom has been shown to counteract some of the symptoms of the disease, either by increasing blood flow or by paralyzing certain malfunctioning cells (I am not sure about the mode of action for the ms treatment)
- Student what is the difference between centipedes other than size?
- Bugscope Team some people think the toxins in the bee sting are beneficial
- Guest what are we looking at
- Bugscope Team this is the proboscis of a moth
- Bugscope Team Beth-Ann there may be a lot to eat right near the water.
- Student how many differint spiders are there in the world?
- Bugscope Team like other bugs
- Guest Is being An Antamologist fun?
Bugscope Team Yes it is fun. I get to travel all over the world (well, sometimes) and I get to spend lots of time out in nature. Today, I am not spending time in nature though.. I have to work on papers.
- Student what is the biggest
Bugscope Team goliath bird-eating spider. it is a tarantula
- 2:47pm
- Guest what is the probices
Bugscope Team good question, the largest proboscis in the world is the elephant trunk. the elephant trunk is considered a proboscis.
- Student spider
- Student Tisha asked, do bugs sleep. no answer yet?
Bugscope Team Here is the answer from earlier--Q: do bugs sleep A:This is actually not completely known. Almost all insects have times of day that they are inactive. They have circadia rhythms that tell their bodies when to look for food and when to sit still and hide. If you keep flies and bees active all the time, they can get sick. So we know they rest sometime each day. We don't know if it is actually sleep though. They don't close their eyes ;)
- Bugscope Team you can crossbreed fruit flies, though
- Bugscope Team You can crossbreed very closely related groups...but that begs the question, are they really species if they can interbreed?
- Bugscope Team they don't really sleep but they shut down and rest sometimes
- Guest can you crossbreed a beetle and a ladybug?
Bugscope Team uh, sure, it's called a beebug... no just kidding. i don't think you can cross those two species
- Bugscope Team you can see the eyes here on the ends of the head
- Bugscope Team you cannot successfully crossbreed a random beetle and a ladybug
- Guest ant hills.. How do ants make them
- Student what is your favouite type of bug?
Bugscope Team i like ladybugs because i also feel an urge to let them go fly outside, to live!
- Bugscope Team I like mites, and so I like earwigs because they often carry mites
- Bugscope Team some insects carry mites that attack their predators
- Student that's really cool!
- Bugscope Team wasp heads are cool because they look so aerodynamic
- Teacher can we hand over the controls to jeff next?
- Guest Thank-You
- Guest that's awesome
- Bugscope Team jeff's got control
- Guest cool
- 2:52pm
- Bugscope Team good job driving jacey, you were the MAN too! you all are doing a great job of controlling the microscope
- Guest why are the beetles we sent you so much more biggar than the usual beetles we see?
Bugscope Team Different insects species are different sizes. That is just the way they are. There are beetles that are the size of a period, and there are beetles that are as big as your forearm. It is the beauty of beetles--and one of the reasons that I like beetles so much.
- Guest um... Thank-You (im a girl)
- Student why are bug scientist called antamaolgist when you dont just study ants but all bugs
Bugscope Team Ah hah---we are called Entomologists ;)
- Bugscope Team oh i know, i was just using some silly slang. i'm sorry.
- Guest How do ants dig their homes or what........?
Bugscope Team I've seen video of when the soil is sandy they just grab one piece at a time and carry it all the way back out and dump it in a pile then go back for more
- Guest its ok
- Bugscope Team :)
- Guest haha
- Guest ;)
- Bugscope Team entomologist is what you call a scientist who studies insects
- Guest why isnt it ant omoligist
- Student oops not a very good speller
- Guest are bugs getting smaller as time goes on?
Bugscope Team Millions of years ago when the dinosaurs were still around it's believed that there was a greater concentration of oxygen in the air, probably due in part to more plants being around. Insects don't have lungs, and so their oxygen transfer is limited by the concentration in the air, meaning their size and activity level is linked somewhat to the environment. They are probably on-average slightly smaller now than in prehistoric times, but I doubt they are continually shrinking
- Guest what was the last bug that you have discovered
Bugscope Team I have collected several new species. I guess the most recent one was a little beetle in Mexico. He isn't described yet. I am working on a paper where my co-author and I name two new species.
- Student Do cockroaches live in Canada?
Bugscope Team Cockroaches live everywhere that humans live. Cockroaches have been transported all over the world by humans.
- Student what is a spiracle
Bugscope Team it is a breathing hole for bugs (similar to our nose)
- Guest wouldn't that takea long time going one by one going back for a piece of dirt?
- Guest is a ladybug a type of beetle?
Bugscope Team yes a ladybug can also be called a lady beetle
Bugscope Team it's a beetle, part of the coccinellidae family
- 2:58pm
- Guest how do insects communicate?
Bugscope Team Insects communicate by sound (like a cricket), they communicate visually (like a firefly), and they communicate by smell and taste using pheromones (like ants following trails).
- Guest what is that on its claw
- Guest can an insect percieve its surrounding or feel its pain
Bugscope Team yes, an insect uses setae (see-tee) to sense its environment. the setae are connected to nerves underneath the exoskeleton shell
- Student what is on it's claw?
- Bugscope Team cole has control
- Guest can lady bugs be male or are they just female and if there are male ladybugs how do tell them apart??
Bugscope Team Ladybugs are both male and female. Usually female insects are larger and fatter than males, other than that, I don't have a really good way to tell male and female ladybugs apart
- Guest what causes a firefly to glow?
Bugscope Team it is a bioluminescent chemical reaction that is produced organs in the abdomen of the firefly. specifically two enzymes: luciferase acts on luciferi
- Guest why do spiders wrap their victims up in their web why can't they just bite then eat them?
Bugscope Team Spiders don't eat the entire insect. They need to wrap them up because they inject a poison that liquifies the interior soft tissues. They wrap them up to keep them while that is working, then they suck the liquid out and leave the hard shell
- Guest oh i see now
- Bugscope Team the firefly has an enzyme called luciferase that acts on a chemical called luciferin in the light-emitting organ and produces cold light
- Guest what is the mystery structure on a fly's head?
- 3:03pm
- Student Wht do some catapillars have fur.?
Bugscope Team Caterpillars have "fur" to help them sense their environment. Many caterpillars have stinging hairs that can cause a rash if you pick them up.
- Bugscope Team caterpillars may have 'fur' as a sensory aid, and also to prevent their being readily eaten
- Guest What is that hole
- Guest are ticks related to Termites? Besides that termites eat different things then ticks
Bugscope Team Ticks are arachnids, and temites are insects. Ticks are more closely related to spiders than termites. Termites are mst closely related to cockroaches.
- Teacher can we pass the controls over to kurt?
- Guest why do mites eat wood?
Bugscope Team Termites have evolved special stomachs and enzymes to break down wood cellulose, which is not commonly digestible by other species and so they don't have to fight with many other insects for a limited food supply. Despite the name similarity, mites are different: they are very tiny and frequently feed on things like dead skin cells
- Bugscope Team kurt, you have control
- Guest how does it prevent them form being eaten?
Bugscope Team when a predator tried to pick the caterpillar up, the hairs sting the predator and the predator drops the caterpillar
- Student what year were bugs discovered??
- Bugscope Team some of the 'fur' is like spines, actually, and functions like cactus spines to discourage biting
- Student other than magots do other bugs eat meat
Bugscope Team Yes. Ants eat dead animals, as do several types of beetle.
- Bugscope Team spiracle
- Student what is that hole?'
- Guest do some bugs have ears?
Bugscope Team Yes, crickets and grasshoppers have ears, some true bugs have ears, and mantids have one single ear. Insect ears are more just like an exposed eardrum. They don't have earlobes or anything.
- 3:08pm
- Student what bug is this
- Bugscope Team bananas produce ethylene oxide when they ripen, and I wonder if the mosquitos sense it like they sense carbon dioxide
- Guest oh
- Bugscope Team this is a wasp
- Guest oh
- Student what is the mane food bugs eat?
- Guest Is it true that some insects eat their own young?
Bugscope Team Yes, sometimes.
- Guest oh rteally? thats cool
- Bugscope Team well, i found some interesting things about mosquitoes and bananas on google. apparently the myth is that if you EAT bananas then mosquitoes will avoid you. something about an oil in the banana that reacts with your body, that repels the mosquito. sounds like a show for myth-busters!
Bugscope Team I heard about that an garlic.
- Bugscope Team it depends on the type of bug, but they will eat almost anything that is remotely edible
- Guest cool
- Guest whats that
- Student se
- Teacher can we pass the controls over to nikita?
- Bugscope Team some insects eat their own young if the young do not leave in time
- Student what do the hairs on bugs do
- Bugscope Team some young will eat their parents as well
- Bugscope Team miss renwick, you mean kita right?
- Bugscope Team Many insects also can sense sound (in the form of vibrations) with their setae.
- Bugscope Team kita, you have control
- Guest really
- Student Like spiders
- Bugscope Team the hairs (setae) are often sensory, like cat or rat whiskers
- Student what thats differint
- Bugscope Team and some setae are able to sense particular chemicals in the air
- Guest If an insect loses a body part will it grow A NEW ONE?
Bugscope Team Once an insect molts into an adult, if it loses a body part it will not grow a new one. If you pull the wings off of a butterfly, it won't grow new wings
- Student i heard that happens to starfish
- Student 0.
- Student 0.
- Bugscope Team if they have time and are in the right stage some insects can regrow limbs
- Student 0.
- Bugscope Team they breathe through the spiracles
- Guest what pic is this
- 3:13pm
- Guest i never new that entomologists are smart
Bugscope Team HEY!
- Bugscope Team some bugs fly in swarms when they are searching for a new place to live
- Bugscope Team so they may leave one colony as a swarm to start a new colony
- Guest what is the powder on a buterflys wing?
Bugscope Team The powder is actually a layer of loosely-attached scales so tiny that they appear to be as fine as dust. One function is to help them escape from spider webs. The web adheres to the outer coating of scales which detach and free the insect
- Guest why do catipillers turn into butterflys.
- Guest thank-you
- Bugscope Team we are lucky to have a particularly smart entomologist working with us
- Guest How do bees and wasps build their homes?
- Bugscope Team But Scott is right...bees and ants will swarm to find a new home
- Bugscope Team haha
- Student how do bees pick their queen bee?
Bugscope Team Queen bees start their lives just like worker bees. As larvae, they are fed different food, which switches a hormone pathway in their brains. Instead of developing into a sterile worker bee, they develop functional ovaries and can lay eggs. Usually the colony kicks the queens out then they emerege. The queens then go off to start their own hives.
- Guest opps i typed that wrong
- Guest about how long doses it take for a caterpiller to turn into a butterflie
- Guest sorry
- Student how come ants don't drown in their ant hills when it rains?
- Student what type of ants keep other ants as slaves?
Bugscope Team I'm not sure about slavery, but some ants are known to "farm" aphids, treating them a lot like cows. They transport them out to "pasture" then watch over them and protect them, then the aphids produce a sugary substance that the ants collect as food
Bugscope Team There are some slave maker ants. The slave-maker queen invades the colony of the slave ant, kills the slave queen, and makes the workers raise her eggs. It is a little more compllicated thatn that, but that is all I have room for here
- Guest do insects need vitamens?
Bugscope Team Insects need a carbohydrates and sugars just like us. Some insects need special compounds to manufacture pheromones or they need bacteria to help digest their food. The main thing that insects have to get in their diet is cholesterol. They can't manufacture it like we do.
- Bugscope Team insects need to have a balance diet like people do
- Bugscope Team balanced
- Guest what is a hamuli
- Bugscope Team but their balance might be different from ours
- Teacher can we hand the controls over to tisha?
- Student how come spiders can walk upside down on the ceiling
- Bugscope Team hamuli are the little hooks on a bee or wasp wing that allow the wings to connect
- Bugscope Team tisha, you have control
- Guest Sorry i meant to say Entomogists are Very Smart.
Bugscope Team haha...no offense taken
- Bugscope Team the fore- and hindwings connect when they fly
- Student what's a hamuli
- 3:19pm
- Bugscope Team Hey Kater no problem!
- Bugscope Team it's okay kater skater, don't sweat it, we are all friends here
- Bugscope Team hamuli are the little hooks we saw on the edge of the wing
- Bugscope Team royal jelly
- Bugscope Team these allow an insect to stick to ceilings and walls
- Guest what insects make sounds with there legs?
Bugscope Team Grasshoppers and some homoptera. Ooh, there are some longhorned beetles that make sounds with thier leggs too.
- Bugscope Team these here are the tenent setae
- Bugscope Team crickets, for example
- Bugscope Team make sounds with their legs
- Guest cool
- Student cool
- Student so bees don't like their queen bee? I always thought they worshiped them
Bugscope Team When the bees kick out the new queens, it is because they already have a healthy happy queen. If they need a new queen, they will let a few queens stay and fight it out.
- Student do insects produce body heat?
- Guest what is a pulvillus
- Student good question:)
- Guest are insects found in oceans?
Bugscope Team Only one insect is found in the open ocean--a type of water strider that lives on mats of seaweed.
- Guest why do catipillers turn into butterflys?
Bugscope Team Caterpillars are the eating and growing stage for the butterfly, but they cannot mate and reproduce. The adult butterfly is both the mating and egg-laying stage of the beautiful insect. Also adult butterflies can disperse by flight, sometimes long distances, to either colonize new areas with fresh plants for the caterpillars or even migrate long distances to escape our freezing winters, such as Monarchs flying to Mexico or coastal California for the winter.
- Bugscope Team the bees want to have only one or a few queens, in some cases, and the other prequeens have to go start new colonies, by swarming
- Student cool
- Student What happened to the headless bug?
- Bugscope Team a pulvillus is a pad between the claws or on the endmost tarsi that often has tenent setae on it
- Guest what is the smallest insect?
Bugscope Team I don't know if they're the smallest, but Tardigrades ("water bears") are very tiny. If you have a bunch of them together in a dish they look like specks of dust
Bugscope Team The smallest insect is a type of wasp called a fairyfly...it is smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Tardigrades, like Chas said, are tiny arthropods that are thought to be ancestral to all of the other arthropods.
- Student why don't ant's drown in the ants hill when it rains.
- Student why do buterflys need powder on there wings?
Bugscope Team The powder, which as Cate said earlier, are scales, make the butterfly slippery--if a bird or another predator grabs hold of the butterfly by its wings, the butterfly loses some of the scales and can get away.
- Student what kind of powder is it
- 3:24pm
- Student a catipiller has six legs. While a butterfly has two? why do catipillers lose legs while they are changing?]\
- Student how do insects stay warm?
Bugscope Team Insects don't stay warm. Mammals have metabolisms that catalyze food and create heat. We need that because certain body processes simply don't work at all if you're too cold. Insects and reptiles are "cold blooded", meaning they simply keep slowing down the more you cool them
- Bugscope Team probably some ants do drown, but they construct their anthills so that the water does not usually overwhelm them -- so that it does not readily flood the tunnels
- Student wy do red ants bite
Bugscope Team They bite to defend their nest
- Student thanks so much for letting me us the controls
- Bugscope Team a butterfly has six legs as well
- Student thank-you.
- Teacher can we turn over the controls to julien?
- Bugscope Team you are welcome tisha, great job!
- Guest how long do insects fly before they can take a rest?
- Student do ants make sounds ?
Bugscope Team I just saw a TV program recently where someone used a laser microphone to record tapping sounds that some ants make on tree leaves to transmit information to one another
- Student oops?
- Bugscope Team Julian has control now, is that right?
- Bugscope Team julian (julien?) has control
- Student Why can some ants fly?
Bugscope Team Winged ants are the reproductive forms. They are queens of the colonies. They have the wings so they can disperse from their original nest
- Bugscope Team oh cool chas
- Guest why are moths attracted to the light?
Bugscope Team well, it's not known for sure, but some scientists think that moths use a very bright light source (sun) as a type of navigational tool. by maintaining a constant angular relationship to a bright celestial light, such as the sun, they can fly in a straight line
- Student ya? why r tyhey
- 3:29pm
- Student do hornets sting or bite people?
Bugscope Team They sting. I bet they could bite, but it would probably not hurt too bad.
- Student do ants survive through winter
Bugscope Team I believe they do. The colonies built under-ground take advantage of the fact that not too far below the surface of the ground it stays a constant temperature year round
- Student oh k
- Guest what insect lives the longest?
Bugscope Team Well ant, bee, and temite queens can sometimes live many years. There are lots of insects that can hibernate for long periods of time and emerge later when the conditions are right. There are some reports of beetles emerging from 20 year old furniture.
- Student why do lady bugs have spots
Bugscope Team they are red/orange and have spots as a warning color.
- Student ?
- Student Is there a sertan amount of times a wasp can sting before it dies
- Student if insects have blood then why don't they bleed when they get hurt
Bugscope Team They do, it just isn't red like ours so perhaps you didn't notice it. Their "blood" is called hemolymph, and it's more of a snot color usually
- Guest awesome. It is so fun talking to Enomoligists!
- Student how many bugs can fly
- Student what is the most harmfull bee and bug
Bugscope Team Most bees are pretty much the same---the stings are not that painful and only really dangerous if you get a lot of stings or if you are allergic. Africanized honeybees are dangerous because they react agressively and in large numbers. The most dangerous "true" bug is probably the kissing bug, which vectors something called Chagas disease in the tropics
- Guest Why do insects have three parts to their body
- Student so if they live underground during the winter, do they slow their activity down
Bugscope Team Underground it's a fairly constant temperature, in the 60's I believe. In addition, ant colonies often have "farms" of decaying material that frequently generate heat, like an organic furnace. It's likely that they can continue to operate normally underground throughout the winter
- Student why do they need a warning color?
Bugscope Team they can have toxic effects on some animals. Ladybugs have a foul odor which deters some predators from eating them
- Guest can bugs be blind?
- Bugscope Team Thanks Kater Skater---you all are asking really good questions. My fingers hurt from typing
- Bugscope Team yes bugs can be blind
- Student o thats cool
- Bugscope Team some ants are blind, for example
- Guest cool thank-you
- Guest how can bugs be blind?
Bugscope Team Insects can be blind if they live somewhere where they don't need to see. Say, they live in a cave or they live underground. Most blind insects have excellent chemical senses: they communicate by smell and taste.
- Student how could blind a bug
- Bugscope Team they get the information they need from their antennae and do not need eyes
- Student this is so awsojme
- Student Is there a sertan amount of times a hornet can sting befor it dies
- Student awsome i mean
- Student cool
- Student interesting
- 3:34pm
- Guest is there a difference between a insect and a bug?
Bugscope Team Yes!! All bugs are insects but not all insects are bugs. The word "bug" refers to insects in the order heteroptera (or the orders Homopter and Hemiptera, depending on what book you read). True bugs have incomplete metamorphosis and sucking mouthparts.
- Student how do ants cary there foos
Bugscope Team They use their big jaws to grab onto things and transport them, normally
Bugscope Team OR, they eat it and store it in a separate stomach and regurgitate it when they get back to the colony
- Teacher can we pass the controls over to tyler11?
- Student sorry i ment to say food
- Bugscope Team tyler11 has control of the scope
- Student kissing bug?
Bugscope Team Yup, it is called a kissing bug because it is attracted to the carbon dioxide that people breathe out when they sleep. Kissing bugs usually bite close to the nose or mouth.
- Student ok
- Student if a person ate a ladybug would it be bad for them?
Bugscope Team It wouldn't kill them. It would taste really bad. If you ate enough of them you would probably puke.
- Bugscope Team Tyler take the mag down to see where you are if you wish.
- Bugscope Team Kissing bugs are kind of scary.
- Bugscope Team colton you have control
- Bugscope Team not all beetles are big, but some of the biggest insects, in the Tropics, are beetles
- Student do flies sense danger? Because everytime I get the fly swatter they seem to hide?
- Student what does a kissing bug look like?
Bugscope Team Do you know what an assassin bug or a wheel bug looks like? They look like one of those.
- Student thats weird!!
- 3:39pm
- Bugscope Team Flies can feel the air move, and they also can see very well, especially motion
- Bugscope Team the compound eyes are particularly good at sensing movement
- Bugscope Team so flies can get away, often
- Bugscope Team yeah don'
- Bugscope Team t eat ladybugs
- Bugscope Team they are colored red or yellow to warn you or to remind you that you will not be pleased to eat them
- Student why do bees have stripes on them?
- Bugscope Team bee/wasp stripes are warning signs as well like the ladybug spots
- Bugscope Team the bee stripes may help other bees recognize their own type
- Student have you ever seen a kissing bug up close
- Student did u ever see a kissing bug?
- Student do insects sleep ?
Bugscope Team In short, probably If you scroll down on the left side of your screen, you can see a better answer from earlier.
- Bugscope Team sometimes it will also help to blend with flowers I would guess
- Student this is fun!!!
- Bugscope Team it also means that some insects can adapt warning colors to mimic bees, for example some flies have stripes so other insects will think they are bees
- Student How many ahfids can a lady bug eat
- Student how come certain bugs are only seen in certain places??
Bugscope Team They are restricted by the climate and by their host--and by the distance they can travel. Most insects can only feed on a few types of food, and they can't live without those kinds of food. But sometimes, unless we humans move them, insects just can't get very far--they can't fly across the ocean. Many times humans accidentally introduce non-native insects into a place....and that can cause probelems. You all have probably heard of the Asian longhorned beetle in Toronto?
- Guest those vishouse mosquiotes i have a mosquito bite and i can't sop scratching it. LOL!
- Student are there kissing bugs in canadfa?
Bugscope Team Nope. You are safe.
- Teacher can you pass the controls to beth
- Guest why do bugs have intenays?
- Bugscope Team beth has control
- Student what will happen if you don't take the stinger out when you get a bee sting?
Bugscope Team I believe the stinger is still actively pumping for a short time even after it is removed, so taking it out quickly might limit the amount of pain. If you left it in for a real long time it might become an infection risk
- Guest do all insects bite?
- 3:44pm
- Guest what do ladybug's eat?
Bugscope Team Some ladybugs eat only certain types of soft-bodied insects like aphids or scale insects. Some ladybugs are more generalists and they will eat anything that is smaller than them.
- Bugscope Team if you don't take the stinger out all of the venom will be pumped into your skin and the sting may feel worse
- Student which bug is the weakest and strongest?
- Bugscope Team I dont see how a moth or butterfly could bite, I guess they could try poking you with their proboscis
- Student what is a wasp pulvillus
- Bugscope Team some adult insects do not even have mouths
- Guest lady bugs have spots on the back does that mean that is how old they are
- Student How come mud makes bee stings feel better?]\
Bugscope Team You know, I don't know the basis of that one. Probably because it is moist and cool. I think it isn't recommended to put mud on stings because it can cause infection.
- Guest I hear that if you use dish soap on a bee sting or hornet bit it won't swell as much as if you were to leave it.
Bugscope Team Maybe...cleaning stings is generally a good idea regardless. I don't know if the type of soap matters.
- Student what's the ugly's bug you've seen
- Teacher can we hand the controls over to skater kater?
- Student Thanks
- Bugscope Team rolypolies are pretty ugly
- Bugscope Team skater kater has control
- Student thats a cool name rollypolies
- Guest what is the most intresring bug you have examened
- Student what do rolypolies look like
- Bugscope Team rolypolies are also called sowbug, or pillbugs, or woodlice
- Student whats a earwing?
- 3:49pm
- Student cool
- Student cool
- Student awsome
- Bugscope Team earwigs can pinch you if you bother them
- Bugscope Team and earwigs often carry mites
- Student does it hgurt??
Bugscope Team it's enough to make you let go usually, but I don't believe it usually can break your skin and make you bleed
- Student hurt srry
- Student i see
- Student how do some ants fly?
Bugscope Team Ants with wings are the reproductive forms: queens or males. They have wings so that they can find a mate and start a new colony.
- Bugscope Team joele has control
- Student how come if u get stung by a bee you lip will swell up??
Bugscope Team I don't know if that always happens, but I know from experience that the face has lots of sections of soft tissue through which venom like that can travel and cause widespread swelling rather than one smaller lump
- Student what is the weakeast and strongest bugs?
- Bugscope Team some ants have wings although most do not
- Teacher thank-you! this is great!
- Guest thanks
- Bugscope Team if your lips swell up, then you are probably allergic
- Student why are bugs called bugs
- Student where do bug go in winter
- Guest thanks for letting me use the microscope it was so fun
- Bugscope Team this is fun for us as well
- Student hat atraces it to the trees
Bugscope Team We don't really know. We think they are attracted to the smell that the tree makes just by living.
- Guest thank u for letting me use the microscope it was fubn
- Bugscope Team a lot of bugs die in the wintertime; some will come into your house
- Student what*8
- Guest how do blister beetles protect themselves?
- Student What kind of matierials make up a bug wing?
Bugscope Team Primarily chitin, similar to what your finger nails are made of
- Guest do bugs hibernate?
- Student what's this
- Guest how do insects grow?
- Bugscope Team blister beetles secrete chemicals that make you have blisters on your skin
- Student are bugs colour blind
Bugscope Team No, in fact some can see "colors" that we can't in the ultraviolet range. There are neat patterns on some flowers and plants that they can see that we can't!
- Guest why do insects like light
- Student can insects taste things?
- Bugscope Team some insects can see color, and some insects can even see colors that we do not see
- Guest do spiders grow up in colonies or are they individualals.
- Guest what insects live on trees?
- Bugscope Team insects can taste things using their chemosensory setae
- Student are bugs smart as humans?
Bugscope Team On an individual level, no, however as an example, ant colonies act like a collective mind and can perform some very impressive feats
- Bugscope Team I hate blister beetles
- 3:54pm
- Bugscope Team some insects like flying insects use light to navigate using their ocelli. So when there are artificial lights around this might mess up where they need to go and end up flying towards the light
- Guest what insects pinch/
- Student why r they called blister beetles do they give u blisters?'
Bugscope Team Yes they excrete a compound that causes a chemical burn and raises blisters.
- Student why are bugs attracted t\o light
- Guest
- Bugscope Team spiders do eat other spiders, and some female spiders eat male spiders that try to mate with them, or eat them after they are done
- Student in the bee movie each bug has a different job to make honey, is that true in the real world?
Bugscope Team Haha. There is division of labor in a colony, some bees are burses, some are foragers, some construct comb---but bees jobs change throughout the course of their lives. Worker bees are all females, by the way. And none of them wear glasses.
- Student if you were to take a stinger from a dead bee and prick your finger would venom still release?
- Guest so little spiders eat big spiders if they get cought in there webs
- Teacher what are we looking at here?
Bugscope Team this is a ladybug
- Student wow thats weirsd
- Bugscope Team sometimes male spiders will put a glob of web on the female spider's mouth to keep the chelicerae from moving so the females cannot bite
- Teacher thanks!
- Student this is really amazing
- Teacher can you pass the controls over to jillian?
- Bugscope Team spiders eat by injecting venom that dissolves the insides of their prey, and they can suck the insides up like milkshakes
- Bugscope Team jillian has control
- Guest thanks bye
- Student Thank you
- Student thank you sooo much
- Student well this was great and really cool thank u so much for the ioppurtunity
- Student bye this was the best thing ever
- Student Thanks for this opertuntye bye
- Guest this was a great oppertunity for me thank you very much and bye
- Student thank-you for haveing us!
- Bugscope Team thank you miss renwick and students of st. walburg. you did an excellent job, good microscope control and great questions
- Student thamnks so much for every thing bye bye this has been great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Teacher We're actually going to have to leave (end of the day) - thanks for everything! This was a fantastic opportunity!
- Student Thanks alot for all the info it was so interesting by by
- Bugscope Team spiders have the ability to let one of their legs go if they sense venom entering that leg
- Guest thank you so much i had so much fun and i learnd a lot of stuff thanks by
- Bugscope Team Glad you guys enjoyed it, you did a fantastic job!
- Student thankyou for answering all my questions dont worry i wont go eat any lady bugs this was awsome !
- Bugscope Team Yay! Thank You!
- Guest bye
- Bugscope Team miss renwick, please keep in mind, all the chat and pictures from this session are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-026
- Bugscope Team Nurses not burses...geez, can't type
- Bugscope Team We had a good time. Annie will need to rest her hands from typing so much.
- Bugscope Team Thank you all for excellent questions
- Bugscope Team Too bad, I have to work on papers next!!
- Bugscope Team Annie will have to wear bandaids on her fingers.
- 4:00pm
- Bugscope Team There is no end to typing today
- Bugscope Team rxl stopped, session disabled and locked
- Bugscope Team Thanks Annie!
- Bugscope Team You carried the session again.
- Bugscope Team haha, no way
- Bugscope Team OK--I will talk to you all tomorrow at 7 am...
- Bugscope Team OKOK bye byte thanks everyone!
- Bugscope Team over and out
- Bugscope Team session done, great job everyone, excellent session, bye!
