Connected on 2008-10-22 08:00:00 from , ME, US
- 7:45am
- Bugscope Team Hi Karin!
- Teacher Good Morning!
- Teacher What are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team this is a sphere from I don't know where, on the claw of a horntail wasp
- 7:51am
- Bugscope Team looks like it is about 40 micrometers in diameter
- Teacher What is a horntailed wasp?
- Bugscope Team they're wasps that live in wood
- Bugscope Team both the females and males have stinger-like tails but they are said not to sting or bite
- Bugscope Team the tail on the female would be an ovipositor -- I imagine it lays its eggs in wood
- Bugscope Team please try driving around, if you would like
- Teacher We can't see the second line of your reply, we can't scroll down. We are on a MacBook
- Bugscope Team I think you will want to change your screen resolution
- Bugscope Team this software was written on a mac
- 7:56am
- Teacher All set, thanks
- Bugscope Team hey cool!
- Teacher Is this an egg?
- Bugscope Team I think it is just a sphere -- I don't think it came from an insect
- Bugscope Team one of those things -- sometimes we see latex spheres like this
- Bugscope Team from car tires wearing out as they drive
- Teacher Does this wasp have horns? Can we see the horns?
- Bugscope Team if you click on preset 3, you can drive from there down to the horns
- Bugscope Team cool -- that is a spiracle on the thorax of the horntail
- Bugscope Team if you now take the magnification lower it will be easy to drive south
- Bugscope Team good!
- 8:02am
- Bugscope Team this may be the upper abdomen -- maybe I was wrong about it being the thorax
- Bugscope Team if you use the click to drive feature don't forget to click to stop as well
- Teacher It looks lik a crab claw.
- Bugscope Team you could also advance more deliberately south using the click to center
- Bugscope Team it does look very much like a crab claw
- Bugscope Team insects and crabs have exoskeletons
- Bugscope Team the shell
- Bugscope Team both exoskeletons are made of chitin
- Bugscope Team which is like what our fingernails are made of
- Teacher YES! We knew that!
- Bugscope Team ha
- Teacher What are hairs?
- Bugscope Team the hairs we call setae (see-tee)
- Teacher Sensors?
- Bugscope Team yes often they are sensors -- some for touch and some for smell
- Teacher Smell with hair?!?!
- 8:07am
- Bugscope Team yes some of the setae have little pits in their tips that sense chemicals in the air, which is what smelling is
- Bugscope Team those are called chemoreceptors
- Bugscope Team the ones that sense touch are called mechanoreceptors
- Teacher How do they breathe?
- Bugscope Team they breathe through the spiracles, like we see above in this view
- Bugscope Team they can open and close the spiracles, so they can hold their breath if they need to
- Bugscope Team it is interesting that the spiracles we saw were closed
- Bugscope Team this is a different wasp, and this is its stinger
- Bugscope Team you can see the little ridges that help it cut
- Teacher What type of wasp?
- Bugscope Team Hello all, sorry I am a little late!
- Bugscope Team This is a small wasp but I am not sure what kind it is.
- Bugscope Team Hi Annie!
- Teacher What part of the body is the stinger on?
- Bugscope Team The class would like to know how insects breathe, and I told them through the spiracles but I did not tell them about the inner components of the resp. system
- Teacher Hi Annie
- Bugscope Team the stinger is at the tip of the abdomen
- 8:12am
- Teacher Is that the rear end?
Bugscope Team yes thats right
- Teacher Does it come out after it stings you?
- Bugscope Team yes this wasp can sting repeatedly
- Teacher OUCH
- Bugscope Team Ok, well, insects breathe through spiracles that are located on each segment of the body (in most insects). The spiracles are like our nostrils and they are connected to tubes called trachaea. The trachaea divide into smaller and smaller tubes (just like ours do) until they are small enough to provide oxygen molecules directly to the individual cells in the insect's body.
- Bugscope Team Thanks, Annie!
- Bugscope Team Annie is our entomologist.
- Bugscope Team That is different from us, where our blood picks up oxygen in the lungs and transports it around our bodies. Insect "blood" doesn't carry oxygen (usually).
- Bugscope Team No problem
- Teacher Thanks, good detail.
- Bugscope Team That's why I am here ;)
- Bugscope Team insect blood is called hemolymph
- Bugscope Team Back to the wasp, if we decrease the magnification, I can maybe identify it (maybe!)
- Bugscope Team insects do not have a circulatory system like ours
- Bugscope Team you can see that the stinger was sticking out about 300 microns, or micrometers. That is 0.3 millimeters.
- Bugscope Team the stinger looks so tiny from here
- Teacher Is this a harmful stinger? Will it die after it stings you?
- 8:18am
- Bugscope Team wasps do not die after they sting you, unless you swat them successfully
- Bugscope Team they can sting again, happily
- Bugscope Team Karin if you would like to drive north you can see the head.
- Bugscope Team But you may also choose from among the presets.
- Teacher How do I go north?
- Bugscope Team I put the dragonfly head in this morning.
- Bugscope Team if you activate click to drive, you can put your cursor on the upper part of the screen and click
- Bugscope Team the trick is to remember to click to stop
- Bugscope Team you are heading north!
- Bugscope Team now we see mouthparts
- Bugscope Team and the eyes
- Bugscope Team oops too far!
- Bugscope Team the salt territories
- Bugscope Team you found some salt
- Bugscope Team the eye!
- Bugscope Team I see the edge of a wing now
- 8:23am
- Teacher We want an eye
- Bugscope Team to get a little more control you could try click to center as well
- Bugscope Team now to he right
- Bugscope Team the jaws!
- Bugscope Team wow that is a wide wasp head
- Bugscope Team hammerhead
- Bugscope Team good job driving!
- Bugscope Team as Cate says you can use click to center; it is easier once you are close
- Teacher I can't control this very well, we are moving to the dragonfly.
- Bugscope Team whoops you drove off the edge!
- Bugscope Team there is a screw
- Bugscope Team deus ex machina
- Bugscope Team this is an owlfly larva
- Bugscope Team it has those long nasty snapping jaws
- Teacher does it have ears?
- Bugscope Team owlflies are related to dragonflies (they look more like them as adults)
- Teacher why is the owlfly called an owlfly?
Bugscope Team as adults they have big round eyes and someone decided it looked like an owl because of them
- Teacher we can't see the slide very well.
- 8:28am
- Teacher we may move to another preset
- Bugscope Team Actually, owlflies are not related to dragonflies at all, although Cate is right, that they do look like dragonfly adults. They are actually related to lacewings!
- Bugscope Team Owlflies are also active at night, just like owls!
- Bugscope Team this is a dragonfly wing
- Bugscope Team you can see little spines on the ridges and a lot of scratches on the wing itself
- Bugscope Team wings are made out of chitin, the same stuff as our fingernails
- Teacher where does the owlfly live?
- Teacher Are fingernails must have more layers and be stronger though, right?
- Bugscope Team Owlflies are found in warmer places in the US. Probably from middle Missouri, Oklahoma, etc., and south, and in most parts of California. They are also found in the tropics. They live in forest areas.
- Bugscope Team yes their wings are like a thin layer of chitin, it is still pretty strong but not as thick as our nails
- 8:34am
- Teacher It looks the windows frosted in the winter. Why is that? Why are there scrapes?
- Teacher How come in real life the wing looks so delicate and feels so delicate, while it looks quite tough here?
- Bugscope Team it really is pretty delicate and fragile from our perspective
- Teacher What part of the wing is this? Is it broken?
- Bugscope Team The scrapes may be from its trip from the dragonflies home to the scope OR maybe from particles in the air that the wings encountered when the dragonfly was flying.
- Bugscope Team when we use the electron microscope we don't see that it is really transparent
- Bugscope Team this is near the tip of one of the four wings
- Bugscope Team sorry, bad punctuation: to correct from the dragonfly's home (e.g. a pond)
- Teacher Why is there a hole in it?
- Bugscope Team Even more bad punctuation, geez!!!
- Bugscope Team yes it is broken -- it is very thin
- Bugscope Team the wing would have been more flexible when the dragonfly was alive
- Bugscope Team less apt to break
- Bugscope Team now it is very dry
- Bugscope Team scott probably poked it as well while putting it on the stub
- Teacher Why do dragonflies need to dry out their wings before they fly?
Bugscope Team When the freshly eclosed adult dragonfly climbs out of the water, it has to dry its wings so that they are light enough and aerodynamic enough to fly. In the mornings you will often see dragonflies sunning themselves---they are doing that so that they can warm up. Insects are cold blooded, as you probably know.
- Teacher Is this OUR dragonfly?
- Bugscope Team yes I tried to be careful, but
- Bugscope Team yes this is your dragonfly
- 8:39am
- Teacher How do the dragonflies know when their wings are done drying and what happens if they dry too long?
- Bugscope Team they probably can't dry too long when they are alive, but when they die they become more dry, more fragile
- Bugscope Team when they are alive they have hemolymph pumping through the larger veins that we see
- Teacher Thanks so much, Annie!!
- Bugscope Team No problem! It takes me a little while to answer, because I write so much!
- Bugscope Team the flea!
- Bugscope Team its eyespot is near the middle of the view we have now
- Teacher Yes, the flea! Are those sharp things its teeth?
- Bugscope Team Nope, fleas have sucking mouthparts--the mouth is right under the antennae
- Bugscope Team the things it bites with are to the left, mostly out of the view
- Bugscope Team those sharp things are something similar to a beard
- 8:44am
- Teacher How do fleas make you itch so much? Is it because they bite?
- Bugscope Team yes as Annie says -- see the antennae at the top of the view we have now?
- Bugscope Team The sharp things are part of the flea's cuticle--they are spiny to help them stick in the hairs of their hosts
- Bugscope Team partly because they bite and partly I think because they cruise around on your skin - they are restless
- Bugscope Team Fleas are very very flat for that same reason, to keep their hosts from removing them easily
- Teacher What are the hairs in the ears? Are they setae?
- Bugscope Team They do look like ears---I am not sure exactly what they are. Let me look it up.
- Bugscope Team yes they have tiny setae there -- probably to keep dust out of that area
- Bugscope Team here we see part of a claw and little pulvillus pads-- pads of tenent setae
- Teacher Is this one of our flies?
- Bugscope Team this is on a housefly
- Teacher Why so hairy on the claw? Also setae?
Bugscope Team the claws themselves arent very hairy. we are seeing the underside of the "foot". The pads of setae are there so the fly can walk on walls
- Teacher Is 'claw' the term entomologists use for this part?
- Bugscope Team this is one we had -- I am sorry I didn't have time to put any of your flies on the stub this morning
- Teacher no worries, you picked some great specimens! :)
- Bugscope Team the forearms of insects are called tarsi
- 8:49am
- Teacher This claw doesn't look sharp. Is that right?
- Bugscope Team it is hard to see the individual claws here but they are sharp
- Bugscope Team I am sorry, I am having trouble finding out what that little area on the flea is...
- Bugscope Team this was a dusty looking fly. we are probably seeing a lot of those dust/dirt particles
- Bugscope Team that is the tip of one of the claws, poiting toward us
- Bugscope Team it doesn't look so sharp at high mag
- Teacher What do they use it for?
- Bugscope Team oop I should've written 'pointing'
- Bugscope Team they can grasp things with their claws
- Bugscope Team and they have six of them
- Bugscope Team six sets of claws
- Teacher Just like legs. One student is wondering if all insects have ears on their legs? She heard praying mantises do.
Bugscope Team Not all insects have ears. Typically, only insects that make noise or that communicate by singing complicated songs have ears. So, grasshoppers and crickets have ears (some have ears on their legs). Mantids actually have an ear in the middle of their chests. Some insects have ears on their abdomens. It is interesting, because all insects can sense vibrations (with the hairs on their bodies) but not all insects have ears.
- Teacher Does that mean 12 claws?
- Bugscope Team there is a tendon inside the tarsus -- inside the arm -- that pulls to open and close the claws
- Teacher Back to dragonflies for a minute. What is the larget dragonfly you have studied?
- Bugscope Team this was a pretty big one for us
- 8:55am
- Teacher We're curious about this slide. What is a fascicle?
- Bugscope Team when we work with insects we choose smaller ones or we will get to see only portions of them
- Bugscope Team the fascicle is the part of the mosquito that pierces your skin and sucks up your blood
- Teacher Thanks, Annie. This clears up some information for us.
- Bugscope Team I am sorry, but I was unable to find out what that little pit on the flea does or even is. It looks like it might be unique to that type of flea.
- Teacher Oh my, Scott! Some of us thought that was the proboscis. This must be sharp then.
- Bugscope Team yes it is very sharp -- you can see a few of the sawteeth on the edge of this one
- Bugscope Team so that is the proboscis, and what we see are both the sheath, with scales on it, and the fascicle tip, which has all of the cutting stylets on it
- Bugscope Team the fascicle slips out of the sheath when the mosquito bites
- Teacher It looks like there are even hairs on the bloodsucking part. Are there two fascicles on this insect?
- 9:00am
- Teacher How do insects go to the bathroom? Do they?
Bugscope Team All insects go to the bathroom. They have a gut with a mouth, and an opening at the other end, where wastes come out. Different types of insects have different types of poop depending on what they eat. Caterpillar poop is dry and round, insects that suck plant sap have liquid wastes
- Bugscope Team the sort of furry part is the sheath, and it is actually split on one side to allow the fascicle to come out
- Teacher How fast does it come out?
- Bugscope Team it slides right out
- Teacher How long have you been entomologists? Is it fun?
Bugscope Team I have been in graduate school since 2003. I will graduate in May and then I will have a PhD
- Teacher We probably only have another minute or so before we need to go.
- Bugscope Team we are entomologists by default, except for Annie
- Bugscope Team but this is a lot of fun for us
- Bugscope Team scott and i may not be entomologists, but by doing bugscope and working with annie, we learn a lot about insects and it is a lot of fun
- Bugscope Team insect poop is called 'frass'
- Teacher THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!! WE appreciate all of the information that you shared with us today.
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- 9:05am
- Bugscope Team annie doesnt want to leave ever
- Bugscope Team It is lots of fun to be an entomologist. Insects are really interesting, and I get to work with interesting people and travel and work in the field.
- Bugscope Team We look forward to seeing you again
- Bugscope Team Ha ha Cate
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your questions and your insects, sorry we didn't get to use them all
- Teacher Take care!
- Bugscope Team Annie can leave as long as she agrees to check in on bugscope when she has time
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Bugscope Team you can access your chat and images from today at anytime by going to: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-084/
- Bugscope Team Of course!
- Bugscope Team over and out
