Connected on 2008-08-22 13:00:00 from Fairbanks, AK, US
- 12:43pm
- Bugscope Team working on getting to vacuum
- Bugscope Team there is something that is juicy that is making it take a while
- Bugscope Team almost ready to start the 'scope...
- Bugscope Team this is Scott, using Cate's login for a minute.
- 12:48pm
- Bugscope Team Cate is using the microscope to collect the presests, and I am at the computer so that I can help set them
- Bugscope Team Hi cgp!
- Bugscope Team We are running a little behind because the sample was so juicy, and it shouldn't have been - it should have been quite dry.
- Teacher Hi, here we are!
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team CGP can you see the images?
- 12:53pm
- Bugscope Team We will be done very soon and will turn control over to you.
- Teacher Yes! It looks good!
- Teacher Will all of these images be saved?
- Bugscope Team yes all of the images will be saved to your database automatically
- Teacher What are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team that is the skeeter you sent
- Teacher What is this?
- Bugscope Team this is salt from Wendy's
- Teacher French Fries?
- 12:58pm
- Bugscope Team from a packet of salt
- Bugscope Team no French fries with the salt
- Bugscope Team you can go ahead and try out the controls if you want
- Bugscope Team please let us know if you have questions or if you have any trouble driving.
- Teacher what is the best way to drive/
- Bugscope Team You can select Click to Center and drive around at lower mag.
- Bugscope Team like if you take the mag down you can see where you are in the larger scheme of things.
- Teacher where is the head of the mite?
- Bugscope Team this is really cool -- a mite on the abdomen of the waso
- Bugscope Team wasp
- Bugscope Team Um it is on top but you can't see it -- there is not much to see
- Teacher What insect is this?
Bugscope Team this is a true bug of some sort. You labelled it as the small black fly.
- Bugscope Team often the head is so tiny it does not look like much
- Bugscope Team this is a small beetle like insect that is actually a true bug
- 1:03pm
- Bugscope Team this is the spruce budworm antenna
- Bugscope Team or atleast a small part of it
- Bugscope Team true bugs are Hemiptera, and they are distinct in that they have piercing mouthparts, among other features
- Bugscope Team you are doing a great job driving
- Bugscope Team you can see the segments of the antenna
- Bugscope Team we are sorry but we had to pull the longhorn beetle you sent off of the stub today
- Teacher why is the hair coming out of the eye
- Bugscope Team now because the focus on this seems to have slipped, you can actually adjust it if you would like
- Bugscope Team the hair helps the bug determine the speed of the wind as it flies
- Bugscope Team for example mechanically, by bending and sending a signal to the nerves
- Bugscope Team or chemically, by being triggered to react via some scent in the air
- Bugscope Team the hairs are called setae, and the functions are mechanosensory or chemosensory
- Bugscope Team In fact, insects "taste" using setate
- Bugscope Team this is a mire in which you can see the head, but it is tiny
- Teacher Is the tail on the bottom?
- 1:08pm
- Bugscope Team mite
- Bugscope Team the head is to the bottom of the screen
- Bugscope Team so that larger element is the head
- Bugscope Team it does not have eyes
- Bugscope Team tho earlier in the week we did we a mite with eyes
- Bugscope Team recently we found a mite with eyes, and it looked so very strange
- Bugscope Team d'oh
- Teacher how common are mites on insects? Are they only on live insects? Or dead ones?
Bugscope Team They seem to be pretty common
- Bugscope Team hi scott!
- Teacher hi
- Bugscope Team oops, sorry about that everyone
- Bugscope Team well they get on when they are alive, and then they 'go down with the ship'
- Teacher hi annie
- Bugscope Team actually sometimes it is true that mites will arrive after the insect dies
- Teacher what is this
Bugscope Team this is a small section of a very large milliede
- Bugscope Team like a dust mite could get on a dead insect
- Bugscope Team we have seen what we think are dustmites on ladybugs that died overwintering in a house
- Bugscope Team millipede
- Bugscope Team this millipede scared me when I opened the package it was in
- Bugscope Team it was so big, like a giant worm or small snake
- Bugscope Team we tought "why would anyone need to use a microscope to look at this/"
- Bugscope Team thought
- Bugscope Team millipedes are arthropods, but they are not insects
- Bugscope Team but it is so cool -- it turned out to have lots of mites
- Bugscope Team it was a pretty funny sight because scott isn't one to yell out like that
- Bugscope Team this is the ventral side - the underside
- 1:14pm
- Teacher how long is it?
- Bugscope Team yeah I had an audience to my dismay
- Bugscope Team it was I think about 4 inches or what is that 10 cm?
- Bugscope Team hahah
- Bugscope Team I dropped it on the floor
- Bugscope Team now whenever I touch it it makes me itch
- Teacher what does the warning mean?
Bugscope Team if you got a warning trying to lower the mag, it's because you have reached the limit. it can;t go any lower
- Bugscope Team I think some of the mites abandon ship for the next warm body, although millipedes are not warm
- Bugscope Team you can find mites we did not see earlier
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the proboscis of the female mosquito you sent
- Bugscope Team the proboscis is a sort of sheath that has the lancet -- the sharp part -- inside
- Bugscope Team when the mosquito bites the lancet comes out and sticks into your skin
- Bugscope Team it is serrated at the end like a steak knife
- Teacher my students are sketching this right now. Tristian is guessing that we are looking at the sucker thing. Is he correct?
Bugscope Team yes!
- 1:19pm
- Bugscope Team yeah it is the tip of the tube through which the blood goes
- Teacher How do you sex a mosquito?
- Bugscope Team their antennae are different
- Bugscope Team for one
- Bugscope Team The mosquito also injects a chemical that keeps your blood from coagulating. Many people are allergic to this compound, which is what make mosquito bites itech
- Bugscope Team itch
- Bugscope Team and males do not try to bite
- Teacher Are males larger than females?
Bugscope Team Females are generally larger in insects. They need to be larger to carry around all those eggs.
- Bugscope Team only the females bite
- Bugscope Team I think that the antennae are the main way that people use to tell males for females. Also, if a mosquito is biting you, it is a female
- Bugscope Team maybe in some species there is a size difference, Annie may know
- Bugscope Team yeah that would be the main difference. the female is the one that bites!
- Bugscope Team it seems like males have more ornate antennae
- Teacher What is the thing to the upper right that looks like it has plates on it?
- Bugscope Team Yes, males have very very fuzzy plumose antennae
- Bugscope Team Annie is an entomologist, and she keeps us on the straight and narrow
- Bugscope Team the things that look like plates, or shingles, are scales
- Bugscope Team scales are kind of like feathers
- Bugscope Team Ha ha, sometimes...I apparently can't spell or type today!
- Teacher What are the scales on?
- Bugscope Team mosquitos, moths, butterflies, skippers, silverfish, and a few odd other insects have scales
- Bugscope Team probably one of the legs
- Bugscope Team The scales make the mosquito slippery. The scales readily fall off, helping the insect to slip out of the grasp of predators
- Teacher Could we take a look at the antannea?
- Bugscope Team can you take the mag down and see?
- Bugscope Team I am afraid the antennae are gone but you can look and see where they were
- 1:24pm
- Bugscope Team if you change the magnificatio so that is is lower and then perhaps move to the north a little
- Bugscope Team now we see that the thing with scales was a leg
- Bugscope Team and the head is to the north
- Bugscope Team you can see part of the wings too
- Teacher We love this.
- Bugscope Team now see the head?
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team the antennae are hard to keep on mosquitoes. they fall off easily
- Bugscope Team the things that look like tiny donuts are not eyes but the bases of the antennae
- Teacher So, are the antennea missing from this one?
Bugscope Team yes. they would be attached to the 2 small round balls you see on the head
- Bugscope Team the eyes are much larger and rounded -- they cover almost the whole head
- Bugscope Team Mosquitos are not very robust insects. They have to be very light to sneak up and bite their hosts.
- Bugscope Team their antennae are not very robust for sure
- Bugscope Team now you can start to see the facets of the eyes
- Teacher This is too cool!
- Bugscope Team the little round things packed together are ommatidia -- the individual facets of the eyes
- Bugscope Team this is fun, isn't it? and it's critters you sent, for the most part
- Teacher what is the big round thing under the anteanna socket?
- Bugscope Team this is an abnormally well-travelled mosquito
- 1:30pm
- Bugscope Team the thing with the two clefts in it is the base of the mouth
- Bugscope Team or the base of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team see how there are scales everywhere?
- Bugscope Team the donut shapes held the antennae, and the antennae fall of so easily
- Bugscope Team this is the ant
- Teacher Is this the mouth?
- Bugscope Team its eyes are mostly covered up by its antennae
- Bugscope Team yes!
- Bugscope Team the mouth, with its hinged jaws
- Bugscope Team and lots of stuff sticking out of it
- Teacher This class will have to leave soon, and a new group will join me. Please be patient with us!
- Bugscope Team we have 'til 2 our time
- Teacher We'll keep looking and asking questions with the new class!
- Bugscope Team is it like 10:35 there?
- Bugscope Team all of the images you take will be saved to your school's database, which may be accessed using your session number
- Bugscope Team so they will exist on the web forever
- 1:35pm
- Bugscope Team now you can see the low dome that is the eye
- Bugscope Team sort of shadowed by the antenna
- Bugscope Team you can tell, in a way, that the antennae are often much more important to an ant than its eyes
- Bugscope Team it gets most of its information via its antennae
- Bugscope Team it is tiny setae sticking out of the top of its head
- Teacher what is a setae?
Bugscope Team setae or for singular seta, are hairs found on insects
- Bugscope Team *has* tiny setae
- Teacher My 5th hour calss has arrived! They will have many questions.
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- 1:40pm
- Bugscope Team this is the Aztec salt from Wendy's
- Bugscope Team we think it has anticlumping agents on it that make it look so complex
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the [rp
- Bugscope Team proboscis
- Teacher She says it looks like velcoro on the lancet! What is the velcro looking stuff?
- Bugscope Team those are tiny setae that probably have a sensory function
- Bugscope Team some insects have special pads of setae that looks and acts like velcro. you would see those on the insects that can walk up walls and ceilings
- Bugscope Team mosquitos can tell where you are by sensing the CO2 you give off when you breathe
- Bugscope Team the Ant!
- 1:45pm
- Teacher what does an ant eat?
- Bugscope Team they eat lots of things, but they really like sweet syrupy liquids
- Teacher what are those little ball like things under the jaw?
- Bugscope Team many insects have evolved special defenses against ants
- Teacher what sort of defense have insects evolved?
- Bugscope Team for example some aphids release a wax that hardens very quickly in air and can disable an ant
- Bugscope Team the ant gets stuck in the wax
- Bugscope Team the main defense is their own exoskeleton, but there are specialization that some have developed like the stink bug emits an odor that wards of others
- Bugscope Team and many insects have chemical sprays that help deter ants -- keep them from attacking
- Bugscope Team and then ants, wasps, and bees have stingers
- 1:51pm
- Teacher what part of the wasp is the mite on?
- Bugscope Team this is the abdomen
- Bugscope Team one of the segments of the abdomen
- Teacher are those sticks hair?
Bugscope Team those little spikes are setae yes
- Bugscope Team if you take the mag down you can see where you are
- Bugscope Team this is on the wasp, which had a bit of dust on it, which leads me to believe this is a dust mite
- Bugscope Team it looks very much like a dustmite for sure
- Bugscope Team look at the eyes!
- Teacher what is this?
- Bugscope Team and you can see the antennae
- Bugscope Team it's some sort of true bug -- Hemiptera
- Teacher what are the little parts to eye called?
- Bugscope Team ommatidia
- Bugscope Team the facets of the eye, each of which produces its own image
- 1:56pm
- Bugscope Team sometimes we see eyes that are broken open, and some of them are actually, apparently, crystalline
- Bugscope Team like lenses
- Bugscope Team can I try focusing this a little better?
- Bugscope Team that is better -- something had moved since we set this up
- 2:01pm
- Teacher My students are sketching this image!
- Teacher How much longer do we have in our session?
- Bugscope Team cgp we have to go
- Bugscope Team you can access all your images and chat on your member page http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-038/
- Bugscope Team be sure to email us if you have any other questions
- Teacher So long! Thanks you!
- Bugscope Team so you can pull up all of the images from this session and make drawings whenever you wish
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your questions, and we hope to see you again!
