Connected on 2008-05-27 15:30:00 from Turlock, CA, US
- 2:31pm
- Guest what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team hi guest, welcome to bugscope, this is an ant jaw
- 2:41pm
- 2:47pm
- 2:56pm
- 3:02pm
- Bugscope Team presets are done
- Bugscope Team we are ready
- Bugscope Team session unlocked ;)
- 3:08pm
- 3:16pm
- Bugscope Team hi kk, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team Hi kk!
- Teacher Hi. Just looking right now. This is the first time for us.
- Bugscope Team we are ready any time you are, if you have any questions please just ask
- Bugscope Team please feel free to test things out as soon as you wish
- Teacher Is this the caterpillar we sent?
- Bugscope Team this is a fruit fly
- Bugscope Team it looks like we did not get samples yet, and we are sorry about that, but we made a set out of what we had here
- Teacher Too bad. I sent it the day after we returned from Yosemite - May 7.
- 3:22pm
- Teacher What part of the fly is this?
- Bugscope Team hmm...well this is the head
- Bugscope Team I wonder what happened. I hope they are not sitting upstairs in receiving..
- Bugscope Team we were looking at the ocelli, which are its 3 simple eyes
- Bugscope Team this is the top of the head of the fruit fly -- what we had started on was one of the ocelli -- the three 'simple' eyes there.
- Bugscope Team it also has 2 compound eyes, which is what is taking up most of the screen right now
- Bugscope Team as Cate said...
- Teacher Are there hairs growing out of the eye(s)?
Bugscope Team yes, the fruit fl,y among many other insects, have tons of hairs. the hairs coming from the eye here help it sense where the wind is moving
- Bugscope Team also, notice the scale bar in the lower left of the image, um is microns, one micro = one millionth of a meter
- Bugscope Team much of the brain is used for visual processing, and you can see why
- Bugscope Team those hairs are called setae (see-tee)
- Bugscope Team bugs are very hairy, when looked upon under a microscope
- Teacher Why does it have circles - from Mario
Bugscope Team well, they are actually hexagons. notice that the compound eye surface is actually curved, and those hexagons fit much nicer into the curved surface than if they were circles
- Bugscope Team Some of the hairs have been knocked out of their roots in the eye and are laying on their sides
- Teacher How does it eat? Does it suck through a tube? from Xochitl
Bugscope Team it has a sponging mouth- a part comes out, some juices are spit up on the food, the food is liquified, and the mouthpart sponges it all up
- Teacher Can you tell how old this speciman is? from Sukhman
- Bugscope Team it has a spongy sort of mouthpart that sucks up its food as a liquid
- Bugscope Team Flies generally first "throw up" stomach acid through their soft mouth parts onto what they want to eat and wait for it to dissolve into a liquidy goo. Then they suck up the liquid
- 3:28pm
- Teacher Do they only live for 24 hours? from Israel.
Bugscope Team well, most insects live for a season, like summer or fall, but there are exceptions. monarch butterfly's can live for a few years, they can migrate long distances as well
Bugscope Team Some species of Mayfly only live for a few hours, with the longest lived only lasting a few days.
- Teacher How does it defend itself? from Joey
Bugscope Team its flies away for the most part. the little hairs on the eyes help a lot to do that because they sense where the wind is coming from, so if you are swatting your hand at them, they are able to feel that coming and fly away
- Bugscope Team the proboscis (the mouthpart) is soft, and when it dries it shrivels up, so sometimes it does not look so good
- Teacher How does it rid itself of waste? from Xochitl
- Teacher How did this one die? from Navedeep
- Teacher Where do fruit flies live? from Jamison
Bugscope Team I'm pretty sure they are found all over. If you leave some rotting fruit out, they are the insects that are flying around the fruit
- Teacher Do they have taste buds? from Xochitl
Bugscope Team Few insects have tongue that resemble ours, buts some have what we call "chemoreceptors", essentially chemical sensors built into other body parts, even their feet!
- Teacher Are they cannibals? from Jason
- Teacher How do fruit flies reproduce? from Jesus
Bugscope Team They reproduce sexually, then the female lays eggs in rotting fruit
- Teacher How high can they fly? from Valerie
- Teacher Where was this one found? from Sukhman
Bugscope Team this fruit fly is from our stock collection. someone brought in a lot of them so I don't know exactly where
- Teacher Do they only eat fruit? from Xochitl
Bugscope Team they actually eat fungi that is found on the rotting fruit, but yes they do
- 3:33pm
- Bugscope Team kk, click again to stop moving
- Bugscope Team there ya go. if you get lost, just click on a preset
- Bugscope Team clicking on a preset takes you to that image
- Bugscope Team I think we are looking at silver paint
- Bugscope Team but there is something to the lower left
- Teacher What are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Team kk, if you are too busy typing questions, we could take control of the scope and drive around for you?
- Bugscope Team this is just the stub, no bug right now
- Bugscope Team kk, try clicking on a preset
- Bugscope Team ah, nice! this is a close up of the fruit fly haltere
- Teacher What is a haltere?
Bugscope Team A haltere is a wing that has been modified into a little bag that bounces back and forth during flight, acting like a gyroscope to help them sense motion and keep a steady course
- Bugscope Team this is one of the halteres, which are modified hindwings
- Bugscope Team they balance the movement of the wings
- Teacher Yes, please do take control. We would like to see the whole bug.
- Bugscope Team a haltere is found on flying insects, it works like a gyroscope, to help the fly balance itself during flight
- Bugscope Team okay, i'll take control then
- 3:39pm
- Bugscope Team thy beat opposite of the way the wings move
- Bugscope Team the hole by the haltere is called a spiracle which is a breathing hole for insects
- Bugscope Team now you can see the entire fly
- Bugscope Team when insects dry out, some things deflate. so the abdomen on this insect looks a bit smooshed because of that
- Bugscope Team if you have any questions or want me to stop on something, just hollar
- Bugscope Team now you can see that the antennae are missing, as are the mouthparts on this fly
- Teacher Do they have a particular habitat? from Sukhman
- Teacher What structure are we looking at now??
Bugscope Team this is part of the antenna, you can see setae here (insect hairs)
- Bugscope Team climates
- Bugscope Team these are microsetae on the head
- Bugscope Team whoa, is that drift, or are the setae moving?
- Bugscope Team well it was close to the antenna anyway
- Bugscope Team Hello all
- Bugscope Team okat, now i'm going to move to the a spider, a spinneret on the spider
- Bugscope Team Hi Annie!
- Teacher How big can they get? from Jesus
Bugscope Team Females are about 2.5mm long, the males slightly shorter
- Bugscope Team the spider spinneret is where the silk comes out of
- Bugscope Team Fruit flies seem never to get more than a few mm long.
- 3:44pm
- Bugscope Team Yes, I am in Newhall, CA. I just got back from setting up traps in the mountains. I feel like ticks are crawling on me.
- Bugscope Team can you catch some for us?
- Teacher What is this?
Bugscope Team this is a spider spinneret, this is where spider web comes from
- Bugscope Team this is a spider spinneret
- Bugscope Team this is where the web comes from -- some of these will produce sticky web and some will produce non sticky web
- Teacher This is a spider now, right?
- Bugscope Team but if the spider gets stuck in its own web it can often eat its way out
- Bugscope Team yep, this is the spider
- Teacher What kind of spider?
Bugscope Team I think it is a wolf spider, but I'm not 100% possitive
- Bugscope Team spiders recycle their web by eating it
- Bugscope Team it is hard to tell if it is a wolf spider or a recluse
- Teacher Can we see the whole thing?
- Bugscope Team now you can see where the fangs are, but we see only one
- Bugscope Team Alex will take it down as far as he can.
- Bugscope Team it is kind of a big spider, but you can see most of it
- Bugscope Team we are now at the minimum resolution, the spider is on its back
- Bugscope Team i'll circle around it so you can see the whole thing
- Bugscope Team If we look at something very large it may be too big for the microscope to show all of
- Teacher We know you showed the spinnet, but how exactly are webs made? What are they made of?
Bugscope Team How spider webs are created is actually a mystery currently being investigated by scientists. We know they're a protein polymer, but there has been little luck creating them in the lab. If we could produce them commercially they may help produce super-strong fabrics to replace things like kevlar in bullet proof vests
- 3:49pm
- Teacher How do spiders get poison in their bodies? from Xochitl
Bugscope Team The spiders have glands that fabricate the poison from the foods they eat, similar to how your body produces stomach acid
- Bugscope Team the web is protein -- silk
- Bugscope Team the silk is a liquid when it is inside the spider
- Teacher What is the poison made of? from Vanessa
- Bugscope Team when the liquid gets into the air it hardens
- Teacher What is this?
- Bugscope Team the poison is different -- it is venom that the spider produces but does not harm the spider
- Bugscope Team this is the joint of one of the legs (tarsi) of the spider
- Teacher Are they dangerous to humans? Pets? from Marissa
Bugscope Team Spiders are considered pests because people don't like them. Usually they can't hurt people. Occasionally people can get large infestations of brown recluse spiders which are of concern. Brown recluse spiders can harm humans.
- Bugscope Team the venom (poison) is injected into the spider's prey and dissolves the inside of the prey's body
- Bugscope Team okay, moving to another preset now
- Bugscope Team most of the bad spiders like to hide and don't want to bother you unless you disturb it, like the brown recluse.
- Bugscope Team the spider sucks the insides of its prey up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Team some venom, like that of the recluse spider, can cause a lot of harm to humans
- Bugscope Team this is a scale that is on a small moth proboscis (something like a bug tongue)
- Teacher What type of moth?
- Bugscope Team the recluse venom kills tissue and makes a large ulcer
- Bugscope Team it was a very small moth, I couldn't tell what it was
- 3:54pm
- Bugscope Team rattlesnake venom can do the same thing
- Teacher It looks "beat up." Is this its normal look? from Israel
- Bugscope Team once they die, insects are often not so organized -- they cannot take care of themselves
- Bugscope Team so it may have rattled around with other insects for awhile before Cate prepared it
- Bugscope Team we are looking at the proboscis now
- Teacher What do moths normally eat? from Vanessa
Bugscope Team Some moths feed on nectar from flowers or rotting fruit. Other moths do all their eating as caterpillars, and they do not feed as adults
- Bugscope Team the 'tongue,' which is coiled up
- Teacher Do they eat like flies? from Xochitl
Bugscope Team Similar, but not identical. The moth just sucks its food through a long straw...whereas the fly spits digestive juices onto its food and then sucks it up.
- Teacher Do all moths eat clothing? from Israel
Bugscope Team their larvae eat clothes
Bugscope Team not all moths eat clothes. Only the larvae of clothes moths. Most moths eat nectar or fruit juice.
- Bugscope Team kk, did you want to control the scope again?
- Teacher sure - thanks.
- Bugscope Team ok, you've got control
- 3:59pm
- Bugscope Team this is salt from Wendy's restaurant, which is kind of different and cool to look at
- Bugscope Team ah, this is cool, this is salt from wendy's. for some reason their salt looks different, they put some additive that makes it look different
- Teacher What is hamuli
Bugscope Team Hamuli are the little hooks you can see there which join the two pairs of wings together into one larger wing
- Teacher What is hamuli?
- Teacher In case we are out of time, many, many thanks. this is amazing
- Bugscope Team no problem, we hope you are all having fun!
- Teacher If you find the caterpillar I sent, could I be notified? Cunningham will be on line again in Sept. Would love to see it then.
- 4:05pm
- Bugscope Team sure, and if we dont, we will keep and eye outside :)
- Bugscope Team here is a mite we found on an ant leg
- Bugscope Team here is an ant mouth
- Bugscope Team the jaw is hinged like a gate
- Bugscope Team and there are palps coming out the bottom that looks similar to an insect trying to crawl out
- Bugscope Team palps help the insect taste food and move food
- 4:10pm
- Teacher How many spots on ladybugs? Do males and females look the same?
Bugscope Team Different species of lady bugs have different numbers of spots. There are nine spotted lady bugs, seven spotted lady bugs, twice stabbed lady bugs. The markings on males and females are pretty much the same.
- Bugscope Team In a lot of insects, ants especially, they use their jaws (called mandibles) like a pairs of hands
- Teacher What does "twice-Stabbed" mean?
Bugscope Team The twice stabbed lady beetle is solid black, except for two bright red spots--one on each of its wings
- Bugscope Team yeah, i was wondering the same thing
- Bugscope Team annie is a PHD in entomology, so we are always learning cool things from her!
- Bugscope Team PhD student..
- 4:16pm
- Bugscope Team I wish I was a PhD.
- Bugscope Team soon to be PhD then
- Bugscope Team I hope so ;)
- Guest What kind of ant?
- Bugscope Team not sure
- Bugscope Team oooh, dunno. Ants are hard for me...I study beetles.
- 4:23pm
- Guest How much can this magnify?
Bugscope Team well, the maximum resolution is 600,000 times or even higher, but at that mag it is hard to get a good image. for bugs like this the resolution is 30x to 100,000x max
- Bugscope Team it can go around 900,000x but you usually dont get anything useful beyond 200,000x
- Teacher How big are the brains of ants?
- Guest What is the smallest thing you have seen?
Bugscope Team Probably the smallest identifiable structures I've seen are tiny tin balls evaporated onto a carbon surface. It's one of our resolution standards for calibrating the microscope. I've observed that at ~600,000x magnification
- Teacher How long would it take an ant to travel 1000 miles??
Bugscope Team ants always live in colonies, which can travel pretty fast, they move fast enough that you better run fast if you bother a colony
- Guest I know the ant has antennae, but can it smell? Is there a nose?
Bugscope Team Ants don't have lungs, so they don't have a nose they can draw air through. They have chemosensors on their antennae, however, that function similarly to our sense of smell
- 4:29pm
- Teacher How big is the ant brain? How are they connected?
Bugscope Team The ant brain takes up probably 1/2 of its head. The antennae are directly connected to antennal lobes in the brain.
Bugscope Team One place says ant brains are 1/100th of a gram... so like a tiny speck
- Bugscope Team I don't know if an ant could travel 1000 miles. It probably would probably die of exhaustion before it traveled 10 miles, much less 1000. I don't know if anyone has calculated how long it would take a single ant to travel 1000 miles, even if it could happen. It would depend on the ant.
- Guest If ants don't have lungs do they have spiracles?
Bugscope Team Yes, they respirate through spiracles
- Guest Is their digestives system similar to ours? stomach, intestines?
Bugscope Team Sort of similar. They have a mouth and an esophagus. That connects with the foregut, then the midgut, and the hindgut. The food is ground up in the foregut, most of the absorption of nutrients and water occurs in the midgut, and the hindgut is where final water balance takes place. They also have malpighian tubules that are kind of like our kidneys.
- Teacher How fast does the ant travel?
Bugscope Team okay okay, so ants don't travel particularly fast, and there are so many variables, like which ant, on what surface, etc. BUT the fastest moving biological structure of any kind is the trap jaw ant, who's jaw can move at an astounding rate, so fast that it uses this snapping jaw to propel itself away from danger
- Teacher Do they have a group brain?
Bugscope Team well, there is the queen of the colony, and ants communicate through chemical sensory means
- Teacher do ants have a "queen"?
Bugscope Team Yes. Some ant colonies can have multiple queens.
- 4:34pm
- Bugscope Team ants do have a queen, similar to the way bees have a queen
- Bugscope Team some may have more than one queen
- Guest Do they have digestive enzymes like bile?
Bugscope Team They have some digestive enzymes...but I am not sure any one if them is analogous to bile.
- Teacher Do ants have "stages of life", like caterpillars?
Bugscope Team Yes, like all insects with complete metamorphosis, theu have larvae, pupae, and adult stages.
- Teacher How do they choose a queen?
Bugscope Team The queen is "made" so to speak. Some larvae are given special food when they are growing. This special food turns on certain hormone pathways that turn the larvae into a quen and not a worker. When a queen emerges it has wings. The queen ants usually leave the nest, and fly away to establish their own nests.
- Bugscope Team ants do not have a stage in which they metamorphose into something completely different, such as a caterpillar into a moth or butterfly
- Guest Do they have a circulatory system? blood? heart?
Bugscope Team They have an extremely simple one. They don't have veins going everywhere, just one main tube along the length of their body that pumps hemolymph (a.k.a. blood) towards the head to circulate some of the fluids
- Bugscope Team they have an open circulatory system
- Guest Hemoglobin?
Bugscope Team Only two types of aquatic insects have hemoglobin and it serves a slightly different function in insects than it does in mammals. Insect blood doesn't carry oxygen to the cells. Each cell has its own air supply (tiny spiracles)
- Bugscope Team their organs are bathed in hemolymph, which is kind of like blood except it does not carry oxygen
- 4:40pm
- Bugscope Team insects get their oxygen not from blood but via the spiracles, which do function as part of a respiratory system
- Bugscope Team Insects are small enough that oxygen can be transported to the cells just by diffusion from the spiracles. This places a limit on their maximum size due to the laws of physics, so no need to worry about car-sized ants someday developing.
- Guest What evolutionary advantage do those aquatic insects have if any? (hemoglobin)
Bugscope Team Insects that live in the water do not have access to as much air as do terrestrial insects. So they need the hemoglobin to store oxygen--in case they can't get enough dissolved oxygen from the water
- Bugscope Team because they do have a respiratory system analogous to ours, insects, thankfully, can grow only so large
- Teacher Thanks so much. We have learned a lot. Hope to have this experience next year!-kk
- Bugscope Team sorry I mean because they do not have a respiratory like ours...
- Bugscope Team thanks kk! you did a great job, just apply again whenever you are ready, we'd be glad to have you back
- Bugscope Team Great to have you with us today! We look forward to seeing another application from you
- Bugscope Team OK--gotta go work. It is still the middle of the day folks.
- Bugscope Team Sorry
- Bugscope Team hee hee
- Bugscope Team ok see you annie, thanks for the great answers!
- Bugscope Team haha bye annie
- Bugscope Team Bye all!!! Thanks for the questions kk!
- Bugscope Team bye kk, thank you for all your interesting questions
- 4:45pm
- Bugscope Team lk, did you want to drive the scope a bit?
- Bugscope Team you can find your transcript and images from today on your session page
- Bugscope Team lk, i just gave you control of the scope
- Guest What are the two species? How did someone determine that was the hemoglobin's use?
- Bugscope Team which is at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-035/
- Bugscope Team lk, sorry but annie has left, she is the entomologist of us, so i'm afraid i can't help you out with an answer to that question
- Bugscope Team you can see it has a ball-and-socket antenna
- Guest This looks like a ball and socket joint. Have you seen others like this on other "bugs"?
- 4:50pm
- Bugscope Team i don't remember specifically, scott or annie would be able to say
- Bugscope Team other hymenoptera have them like bees and wasps, we might have seen them on other insects as well, but i can't think of any on the top of my head
- Bugscope Team or cate :)
- Bugscope Team there's a spiracle
- Bugscope Team looks like it
- Bugscope Team yes that is a spiracle
- Guest Do you know what that is?
- Bugscope Team i don't
- Bugscope Team I really have no idea
- Bugscope Team sorry lk, the session has ended, and our entomologist left
- Bugscope Team but you are welcome to stay a little longer and drive around
- Bugscope Team hmm, that flower pot looking thing was right on the abdomen, that outa tell us something about it
- Guest Thank you for everything!!!!
- 4:55pm
- Bugscope Team kind of like the spider spinneret, cept the ants don't have silk
- Bugscope Team you are welcome lk
- Guest This was a lot of fun!!!
- Bugscope Team thanks for joining us today, glad you liked it
- Bugscope Team if you'd like to apply for a session: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/apply
- Bugscope Team upcoming sessions are also listed on the main site: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu
