Session 2008-102 with Central School

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2009-06-16 15:00:00 from , AB, CA

• 12:47pm
• Bugscope Team waiting for time on the 'scope -- it's 12:46 and we have the 'scope at 1
• 1:02pm
• Bugscope Team okay now we have the 'scope and are getting ready to set up
• 1:21pm

• 1:28pm

• 1:33pm

• 1:40pm

• 1:46pm

• Bugscope Team And now I am almost done ma
• Bugscope Team king the presets

• 1:57pm

• Bugscope Team Okay I have the presets done but will keep cruising around looking for cool stuff.
• Bugscope Team Hola...
• 2:02pm
• Bugscope Team ~How are you guys?
• 2:07pm
• Guest What is this?
• Bugscope Team Hi Aditi.
• Bugscope Team These are a couple of wing scales from a moth
• Guest What kind of moth?
• Guest Hi Scot.
• Bugscope Team I don't know what kind of moth -- it actually looked like a wasp at first
• Guest What is a wing scale?
• Guest Cool!
• Bugscope Team wing scales are analogous to feathers, on a bird, from our perspective
• Bugscope Team they're the stuff that feels powdery, silky, when you touch the wing of a moth or butterfly
• Guest What does "analogous" mean?
• Guest How big is the moth?
• Bugscope Team analogous means, in this context, the part that is very much like the similar part on another insect
• Bugscope Team or bird
• Guest What class is it today?
• 2:12pm
• Bugscope Team this will be a 2nd grade class in Alberta, Canada
• Guest Where in the world can this moth be found?
• Guest Canada!
• Bugscope Team I think the moth is local -- we supplied all of the critters today
• Guest Oh.
• Guest What are moth wings made of?
• Bugscope Team they're made of chitin, like what the exoskeleton is made of, or like your fingernails, or like a shrimp shell
• Guest "Chitin" and "exoskeleton" ? What does that mean?
• Guest What do moth's eat?
• Bugscope Team Chitin is a protein that is like what your fingernails are made of. The exoskeleton is what the surface of most insects is called, since they have no skeleton; it's like a shell.
• 2:17pm
• Guest Neat!
• Bugscope Team I think mostly nectar, from flowers, stuff like that.
• Bugscope Team Have you ever stepped on a bug...and heard a cracking sound...that would have been the chitin exoskeleton breaking...
• Guest Pretty much the same as butterflys?
• Bugscope Team yeah like butterflies; moths are nocturnal, most of them
• Guest I have heard that sound.
• Guest How many kinds of moths are there in the world?
• Bugscope Team I'm sure there are thousands
• Bugscope Team don't really know
• Guest Thousands?
• Guest That's a lot!
• Bugscope Team like a few thousand species -- we could look it up
• Guest Are any endangered?
• Guest Okay.
• Bugscope Team there are said to be 150,000 to 250,000 species of moths in the world, and you can be sure that some are endangered.
• Guest Now thats a lot!
• Bugscope Team so Smiley had said 'kazzillions,' and she was close
• Bugscope Team Hello Mrs R!
• Teacher Hello!
• 2:23pm
• Guest Hi, Mrs.R!
• Bugscope Team you have control of the 'scope now, and please let me know when you have questions
• Guest How much is a "kazzillion" ?
• Teacher Thank You! My students wont be here for another 1/2 hour but I wanted to check things out.
• Bugscope Team Smiley used to work with us here, and now she lives in Florida, goes to school there. Aditi logs on once in a while.
• Teacher Neat
• Teacher Neat
• Bugscope Team Well you can try driving, changing presets, changing mag, focussing.
• Bugscope Team Hello Mrs R =)
• Bugscope Team it is better to click to center, sometimes, than to drive

• Guest I like bugscope so I go onto some of the sessions, mostly in the summer because of school.
• Bugscope Team Scott, one of the presets is an ant comb...what is that?

• Guest Yeah, what is an ant comb?
• Guest Hi, Smiley
• Teacher Can I click on different presets at any time?
• Bugscope Team the comb is part of the forelimbs
• Bugscope Team yes try any preset
• Bugscope Team at any time
• Guest Thank's Scot.
• Bugscope Team Thanx
• Bugscope Team Hi Aditi

• 2:28pm
• Bugscope Team ants need to clean their antennae, and they have a built-in comb that they can run over their antennae to get the dust and dirt off of it
• Guest Thank's should be written like that, Smiley!
• Bugscope Team this is a pile of moth scales
• Bugscope Team Thanks
• Bugscope Team Mrs R please be sure and let us know when you have questions.
• Bugscope Team and if you have any trouble at all.
• Guest Can you see the scales with a naked eye?
• Bugscope Team Aditi they look like super fine powder.
• Guest That's tiny!
• Guest How many does each moth have?
• Bugscope Team too many to count
• Guest WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Guest What is a leafhopper?
• 2:33pm
• Bugscope Team here you can see a pollen grain, kind of cool
• Guest And an assasin bug?
• Bugscope Team at the lower right is a pollen grain
• Guest I can see it!
• Bugscope Team assassin bugs attack other insects and suck the juice out of them; leafhoppers are also true bugs, and they drink sap from plants
• Guest Assasin bugs are mean!
• Bugscope Team yeah that is their business; some insects feed on other insects
  Bugscope Team It is a frequent occurance in nature. Lions eat thompson gazelles, spiders eat flies, and assassin bugs eat other bugs
• Bugscope Team ladybugs and dragonflies also eat other bugs, and ambush bugs do, and ants
• Guest Do spiders drink the blood?
• 2:38pm
• Guest "Ambush" bugs?
• Bugscope Team spiders inject venom into their prey, and the venom digests the insides of the prey, and the spider sucks it all up like a milkshake
• Guest Eww!
• Teacher Wow this is all very interesting. I will be back with my students in 20 minutes.
• Bugscope Team cool see you soon
• Guest I agree Mrs.R, this is interesting!
• Bugscope Team ambush bugs lie in wait on leaves and flowers, and they are often disguised, like the same color as the flower, or frilly looking like the edge of a flower
• Bugscope Team My friend showed me a sand lion, is that the name, the other day?
• Bugscope Team ant lion
• Guest Our class had some Praying Mantises and they ate each other.
• Bugscope Team they live in the sand, make little funnel-shaped traps
• Bugscope Team praying mantises a pretty fierce; they eat a lot
• Guest Each other!
• Bugscope Team yeah that antlion was still alive
• Bugscope Team antlions have long trap-like jaws
• 2:43pm
• Bugscope Team Smiley could you send us some?
• Bugscope Team if you don't mind catching and freezing them
• Guest The one that we sent in?
• Bugscope Team antlions, when they grow up, turn into predatory flying insects kind of like dragonflies
• Bugscope Team yeah the one sent in was still alive, and we couldn't use it right away. it was alive and mad as well
• Bugscope Team brb
• Guest What is their name once they become the dragonfly like thing?
• Guest "Mad" !
• Guest Okay Scot.
• Bugscope Team Antlions?
• Bugscope Team owlfly, for one
• Bugscope Team I will try...
• Guest What's an owlfly?
• Bugscope Team owlfly larvae look much like antlions; antlions often decorate their exoskeleton with debris, like sand and rocks, to disguise themselves
• Bugscope Team an owlfly is a predatory fly with big eyes, kind of like a dragonfly
• 2:48pm
• Bugscope Team My friend who showed them to me is leaving...I have to see if I can get to a sandy area...
• Bugscope Team yeah Claudi if you have time...
• Guest G
• Guest oops didn't mean to say "G"
• Bugscope Team I will try...I promise...from now on...I will carry film container with me whereever I go in order to be prepared when I see one...
• Bugscope Team Cool. Do you have a tan now, Claudi?
• Bugscope Team or do you work in the lab all of the time?
• Bugscope Team a lab tan?
• Guest I will probably be back tomorrow
• Bugscope Team we will be here; tomorrow's session runs all morning
• Bugscope Team like from 8 am to 12 noon central
• Bugscope Team Not really...
• Guest I will be there.
• 2:53pm
• Bugscope Team Just where the sun hits when I ride my bike home...I come in early before sun is really up...
• Bugscope Team hey it's okay Claudi -- you know I never go outside in the daytime if I can help it
• Bugscope Team I just kind of scurry from building to building if I need to leave here
• Guest I am sort of getting confused.?
• Bugscope Team what's the matter Aditi?
• Bugscope Team the class should be on soon
• Guest Nothing Scot.
• Bugscope Team okay, just checking
• Bugscope Team Sorry...did I do something wrong, aditi?
• Guest No, Smiley.
• Bugscope Team Smiley used to work with us when she went to school here, and she used to help with Bugscope.
• Guest Cool!
• Bugscope Team Now she is going to school in Florida, and she helps when she has time but she has been very busy with school, which is as it should be.
• 2:58pm
• Bugscope Team And her real name is Claudia, or Claudi.
• Guest Neat.
• Bugscope Team Yup...far away now...and recently I have had no time to log on at all...
• Bugscope Team Neat and super sweet.
• Guest Mind if I call you by Claudi, smiley?
• Guest When is the class coming?
• Bugscope Team they should be on any minute now
• Bugscope Team Smiley or Claudi/Claudia is fine...
• Guest I thought 20 minutes have gone by?
• Guest Got it Claudia.
• Bugscope Team My nickname is Smiley...so I usually use it as my log in...actually cannot remember that I ever used anything else to logon to Bugscope
• Teacher Hello, the students are here! We are very excited!
• Bugscope Team Cool!
• Guest Hello everyone!
• Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Team Hello everybody!
• Teacher Thank You!
• Teacher Thank You!
• Bugscope Team Be sure and let us know whenever you have questions about anything!
• 3:04pm
• Teacher Sounds Goods!
• Teacher What are we looking at?
• Bugscope Team these are moth scales on the head of the second moth on the stub, today
• Guest Stub?

• Bugscope Team you can see in the SW corner of the image we see now that there is a pollen grain
• Bugscope Team The bottom right corner has pollen grain

• Bugscope Team now we see more scales

• Bugscope Team you can decrease the magnification if you would like to see where you are

• Guest neat angle

• Bugscope Team you can go still lower
• Bugscope Team ha now we see the edge of the compound eye
• Guest omg they look like they are alive
• Bugscope Team that is cool
• Teacher Is that an eye?
• Teacher Is that an eye?

• Bugscope Team the tiny facets of the eye are called ommatidia
• Bugscope Team yes that is the eye of the moth
• Bugscope Team you found it!
• Bugscope Team if you decrease the mag again you may be able to see more
• Bugscope Team to the right...all the little hexagons are individual omotitia

• Bugscope Team sorry

• Bugscope Team moths, butterflies, silverfish, and some weevils have scales
• Teacher Are we also looking at the nose?
• 3:09pm
• Bugscope Team now you can see the other eye, and to the lower left we see the proboscis
• Teacher Do they have noses?
• Bugscope Team which is kind of like a nose, but it is really the extensible mouthpart, like a straw
• Bugscope Team they have tiny setae (hairlike bristles) that can taste the air around them
• Bugscope Team so they really don't have a single nose like people do
• Bugscope Team yes they are nocturnal
• Bugscope Team most of them, I think; there are always exceptions
• Teacher What is the curved part in the bottom left?
• Teacher What is the curved part in the bottom left?
  Bugscope Team proboscis
• Bugscope Team when moths are attracted to porch lights they are confused and think the light is the moon
• Bugscope Team that is the proboscis
• Guest what are the hexagonal things in their eyes called
• Bugscope Team it is curled up so the moth can fly, but when it opens it extends like a long straw
• Bugscope Team those are ommatidia, Aditi

• Bugscope Team the moth forces hemolymph into the proboscis when it wants it to extend, and it rolls out like a party favor on New Years' eve.
• Bugscope Team this is the top of the head of a tiny beetle
• Bugscope Team if you take the mag down here you can see its face, to the south
• Teacher What are the round things on the head?
• Bugscope Team you can see that some of the setae on the top of the head have fluid stuck to them
• 3:14pm

• Bugscope Team those are droplets of fluid, some kind of oil perhaps
• Bugscope Team see its eyes now, and its proboscis?
• Bugscope Team it is a tiny true bug
• Teacher What are we looking at now?
• Bugscope Team the eyes are on either side of its wide head
• Guest What i is the white hairy thing
• Bugscope Team and down the middle of the head is part of the proboscis
• Bugscope Team you can see one of the claws to the left, lower middle
• Teacher What does the proboscis do?
  Bugscope Team I think of it like a trunk/straw to drink nectar
• Bugscope Team the proboscis sticks into whatever the insect eats, like fruit or seeds
• Teacher so its like its mouth?
• Bugscope Team it is like its mouth, yes!
• Guest wHAT ARE BUGS BODYS MADE OF?
• Bugscope Team 'true bugs,' called Hemiptera, have piercing mouthparts like that
• Bugscope Team bedbugs have a proboscis like that as well
• Teacher We are just wondering if you have discovered any new species of bugs at your lab?

• 3:19pm
• Teacher interesting
• Bugscope Team ooh now you can see where this little bug was pinned -- it was in someone's collection
• Bugscope Team see its legs?
• Teacher What is the black hole that we are seeing?
  Bugscope Team that is where the insect had been pinned when it was in a collection that someone gave us
• Bugscope Team insects always have six legs
• Teacher Yes, we have been learning that.

• Bugscope Team see how the legs have tiny hairs (setae, pronounced see-tee) on them?
• Bugscope Team and this, this is kind of scary
• Teacher This is scary, we are all ohhing and ahhing.
• Bugscope Team the thing that looks like a spiny club is the head of a small assassin bug
• Bugscope Team see its eye?
• Teacher we are just looking at a black screen
• Bugscope Team and it has a powerful nasty proboscis that it sticks into insects that it bites
• Bugscope Team hit F5 or refresh
• Teacher we are looking at a black screen
• Bugscope Team can you see now?
• Teacher okay were back
• Teacher Is this a poisonous bug?
• Bugscope Team I am not sure whether they inject a poison or not
• 3:24pm
• Teacher Are they dangerous?
• Teacher Are we looking at a female or male?
• Bugscope Team I saw something on the web that says it injects a toxin that liquefies the insides of its prey
• Bugscope Team sometimes, like now, it is hard to tell if you are looking at a male or female
• Teacher cool

• Bugscope Team with insects the females are sometimes larger, and wider, perhaps, because they carry eggs

• Bugscope Team some insects you cannot tell until you crack them open and use a light microscope to see them up close
• Teacher What are the spikes on the bugs head?
• Bugscope Team or an electron microscope, like you are driving now
• Guest What are we looking at?
• Bugscope Team the spikes help protect it from bites

• Bugscope Team here we see the assassin bug on the left and a moth now in the middle
• Bugscope Team the moth is charging up with electrons, and it does not look good, does it?
• Guest Cool!
• Guest Not at all!
• Bugscope Team all of the insects/arthropods we look at need to be coated with gold-palladium to keep them from charging up like this
• 3:29pm
• Bugscope Team sometimes they still do not get grounded well
• Teacher Would the poison that this bug injects harm a person?
• Bugscope Team I would try another preset
• Bugscope Team it would probably make you itch, and it might make a red spot

• Guest How long would it itch
• Bugscope Team recluse spider venom is the kind that will kill your flesh where it bites
• Guest What is this?
• Bugscope Team this is the ant com
• Bugscope Team comb
• Guest It looks like feathers
• Bugscope Team it is also charging up a little
• Teacher What is it's purpose?
• Bugscope Team this is how the ant cleans its antennae
• Bugscope Team ants depend on their antennae much more than their eyes to get information about their environment
• Bugscope Team and it is important to keep the antennae clean
• Bugscope Team like when you see a fly cleaning its eyes
• Teacher neat

• Bugscope Team you can take the mag down here if you would like to see where you are, or you may want to go look at the head, for example
• Bugscope Team cool!

• Bugscope Team this is one of the ant's forelegs
• Bugscope Team only the forelegs, from what we have seen, have these little built-in combs on them

• Bugscope Team the other thing we see is one of the antennae

• Bugscope Team there is the head

• Bugscope Team to the upper left

• Bugscope Team now to the north
• 3:34pm

• Bugscope Team this is the thorax, and guess what? there is another hole from a pin

• Guest where
• Guest I see it.
• Bugscope Team insects have exoskeletons. it would be like if you wore armor all of the time
• Teacher How many hairs are on their antennae?
• Guest What is that y shaped thing?
• Guest near the tpo
• Guest top
• Bugscope Team there are hundreds of tiny hairs, called setae, on the antnennae
• Guest Bye Scot
• Guest See you tomorrow
• Teacher How big can ants get?
• Bugscope Team Bye Aditi!
• Guest Got to go
• Teacher C-ya
• Teacher thanks
• Bugscope Team some ants do not have eyes, but they all have antennae
• Guest C-y Mrs. R
• Bugscope Team Bye Aditi
• Guest Bye everyone
• Teacher Are queen ants bigger than other ants?
• Bugscope Team chemosensory means that the setae can taste things
• Guest Bye Claudia
• Bugscope Team yes they are often much larger, and they may live longer, like for 10 to 12 years

• Bugscope Team ants are also different sizes depending on what they do for the colony

• Bugscope Team so even in the same colony we could see large and small ants
• Bugscope Team Wow 10 to 12 years...really?!
• Bugscope Team now it is dark for me as well

• Guest that's better
• Guest wow!
• Teacher What is this?
• Bugscope Team this looks like my friend the Gutenberger, but don't tell him
• Bugscope Team this is a leafhopper
• 3:39pm
• Bugscope Team see its eyes? and its tiny antennae?
• Bugscope Team it is also a true bug, and so it has a proboscis as well
• Teacher where are the eyes?
• Bugscope Team I think the front of the head is shaped like that because it has a sort of pump inside to help it drink sap
• Bugscope Team the rounded bumps on either side of the head, below those little antennae
• Bugscope Team those are the eyes -- the rounded bumps
• Bugscope Team you could go see one at high mag if you would like
• Teacher Are leafhoppers like grasshopper? We have never heard of these before.
• Bugscope Team now we know why this guy has a hole in him as well

• Bugscope Team they are very small, and they are not related to grasshoppers; you see them if you sweep your hand across a bush, for example; they really do hop
• Teacher Can they fly?

• Bugscope Team leafhoppers have tiny round waxy protein spherical or ovoid pellets on their bodies that no other insect has
• Teacher cool
• Bugscope Team I think some can fly, but I have never seen one fly for sure
• Teacher Is the specimen on a leaf?
• 3:44pm
• Bugscope Team the little pellets are called brochosomes, and I did not find any today, yet
• Bugscope Team this is on carbon doublestick tape
• Bugscope Team it does look kind of like a leaf

• Bugscope Team everything we are looking at is on a stub 1.75 inches in diameter

• Bugscope Team and it is inside the vacuum chamber of the electron microscope you are driving from your classroom
• Bugscope Team this is the mouth of the ant

• Bugscope Team ant mouths are often very busy - it looks like they have eaten a whole 'nother insect!

• Bugscope Team but those are palps
• Bugscope Team palp are like accessory mouthparts, like tiny extra legs that the ant uses to help it feed
• Bugscope Team palps are accessory mouthparts, I should have said
• Teacher neato
• Bugscope Team in the middle you can see a long scale, from a butterfly or moth

• Bugscope Team ants will eat almost anything but they love sweet liquids
• Bugscope Team you can see its jaws, at the top of the view here

• Bugscope Team the jaws open from side to side like a gate

• Bugscope Team they even seem to have hinges

• Bugscope Team insect mouths often open sideways compared to our mouths
• 3:50pm
• Teacher we didn't know that
• Teacher we didn't know that

• Bugscope Team we see cool stuff all of the time! we are lucky to be able to do this, and we learn as well
• Teacher Are we looking at the thorax yet?
• Bugscope Team the thorax is where the forelegs are anchored, so yes!
• Bugscope Team once again you can see where this ant was pinned, after it died, for someone's collection
• Bugscope Team and that pin went right through the thorax
• Bugscope Team the abdomen of an ant is called the
• Bugscope Team 'gaster'

• Bugscope Team ha another moth!
• Bugscope Team see its coiled proboscis? and the palps, which are covered with scales?
• Bugscope Team and one of the antennae, sticking up in back?

• Bugscope Team I am sorry that it is charging up with electrons, but moths are very hard to make conductive because of all of those tiny scales
• Bugscope Team this looks great!
• Bugscope Team all of thie little stick-like things are scales
• Teacher this is really nest
• Teacher neat

• 3:55pm
• Bugscope Team if you had scales, and you flew into a spider's web, you could leave the scales and perhaps slip away

• Bugscope Team this is some of the carbon tape

• Bugscope Team looks like a fruit fly!

• Bugscope Team yes!

• Teacher How big do fruit flies get?
• Bugscope Team they stay pretty small, just a few mm long
• Bugscope Team see the scale bar on the left?
• Bugscope Team very small
• Bugscope Team they like the fungus that grows on fruit

• Bugscope Team Even though they are very tiny...they make a good model system to study especially in genetics and neuroscience
• Teacher is there hair in its eye?
• Teacher is there hair in its eye?
• Bugscope Team yes lots of tiny setae that help it gauge the speed of the wind
• 4:00pm
• Teacher what are the spikes coming out of the eye?
• Bugscope Team you can see, also, a little dome on the top of the head that is one of the ocelli -- simple eyes

• Bugscope Team little setae coming out of the eyes
• Bugscope Team as Scott mentioned they help the flies navigate
• Teacher how long have bugs been around?

• Bugscope Team Did u select a preset?
• Teacher We have to go Thank you so much we learned a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Teacher We have to go Thank you so much we learned a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Bugscope Team I hope you had fun...
• Teacher It was very interesting
• Teacher It was very interesting
• Bugscope Team We enjoyed having you.
• Guest Bye Mrs.R
• Teacher The students said that it was fabulous and thanks for sharing!
• Bugscope Team insects have been around for millions of years; the Cenozoic is called the age of insects, but they are older than that
• Bugscope Team Bugs under bugscope are my personal favorite...they dont move any more =)
• Bugscope Team Thank You!
• Teacher BYE!
• Bugscope Team Bye...
• Bugscope Team Bye!
• Guest Bye Scot
• Guest Bye Claudia
• Bugscope Team Bye Aditi!
• Guest Bye Everyone
• Bugscope Team Alright I am shutting down.
• Guest See you tomorrow guys
• Bugscope Team Thank you Aditi
• Bugscope Team Thank You Smiley!
• Guest you to sot an claudia
• 4:05pm
• Bugscope Team Bye Scott...was so nice logging on again =)
• Bugscope Team ahhhhhhhhhhhhh
• Guest i mean scot and claudia
• Bugscope Team Its 94...and I get to ride my bike home...
• Bugscope Team no problem Aditi
• Bugscope Team okay be careful Claudi! Bye!
• Guest hope you enjoy your riide claudia
• Bugscope Team over and out!