Connected on 2009-04-02 12:30:00 from , MA, US
- 12:14pm
- Bugscope Team Setting up...
- 12:19pm
- 12:25pm
- Guest what is this
- Guest are these its teeth
- Bugscope Team hello ms shapiro
- Bugscope Team we are looking at a sowbug at the base of a leg where the gills are supposedly located
- Guest what are we looking at?
- Guest where does a sowbug live
- Bugscope Team A sowbug is also known as a roly poly
- Bugscope Team it lives in damp places: under logs and leaves
- Teacher Hi Can we log in more than one teacher?
- Bugscope Team Yes but only one teacher will have control.
- Bugscope Team A sow bug is actually not a bug at all. It is actually more closely related to a lobster
- Teacher Is Scott with us today
- 12:30pm
- Bugscope Team Yes I am console right now.
- Teacher Hi Scot
- Bugscope Team But the deal is that lobsters are actually really big bugs.
- Bugscope Team Scott!!!
- Bugscope Team Hi Ms. Shapiro! Thank you for logging in last night.
- Guest what part of the sow bug are we looking at
- Bugscope Team lobsters are bugs with double antennae
- Guest what is your favorite bug
- Bugscope Team this is the base of one of the legs
- Bugscope Team Lobsters are not insects. They have too many legs and too many antennae and no wings
- Bugscope Team The fail the insect test
- Bugscope Team No they're like Super Insects
- Teacher One of our favorite bugs is the centipede
- Bugscope Team that taste good with butter
- Guest can i control the microscope
- Teacher Are we ready to begin
- Bugscope Team Yes you may drive now if you would like Ms Shapiro.
- Bugscope Team Aditi we would like to let Ms Shapiro drive, unless she wants us to give you control.
- Teacher It says the controls are locked
- Guest what part of the sow bug is this
Bugscope Team This is the base of the legs
- Bugscope Team they should be unlocked now
- Bugscope Team Sorry they are unlocked now...
- 12:36pm
- Teacher I've got a pink strip that says please wait while that command executes
- Student yo
- Guest I am from sutherland elementary school. Is our antlion still alive?
- Bugscope Team For the record so no one is confused, Lobsters are crustaceans, not insects. And sowbugs are not insects either; they are related to lobsters.
- Teacher Do I have too many computers logged on
- Bugscope Team The antlion is sleeping soundly now, Aditi.
- Bugscope Team is it gone yet? you could try to refresh and see if it goes away
- Bugscope Team No that should be good, only 7 computers plus two teachers plus Aditi.
- Teacher Yes its gone
- Student are those the anteanas sticking out of the nostrils?
Bugscope Team it does look like where a nose would be, but for ants they have their antennae come out of their head above their mouth. Ants don't have nostrils, though they do have spiracles on their body, which we cant see right now
- Guest is this its head?
- Guest are those jaws
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the leafcutter ant, and the serrated pincer like things are its jaws.
- Teacher We're magnifying the eye
- Student it looks like a lot of grapes
- Guest why are there bumps on the eye
Bugscope Team this is one of two compound eyes on the ant, which is made up of facets that we believe each gets an image and sends it to the brain
- Bugscope Team ants have pretty simple-looking compound eyes. Some ants dont have any eyes
- 12:41pm
- Student then how can they see
Bugscope Team Most ants spend a lot of time underground where it is dark. So they don't need very good eyes. Ants mostly sense their environment though taste and smell
- Guest ccool
- Guest cate what is a facet
Bugscope Team the facets on a compound eye are technically called ommatidia, but they are the individual components of the eye
- Student that's cool!
- Bugscope Team each bump is a facet
- Student what is the purpose of the spikes on the ant?
Bugscope Team I am not sure if anyone really knows...the can probably be used to defend the ant, it may also be a sort of tool to help the ant dig and move leaves around
- Guest what part are we zoomed in on
Bugscope Team we are on the top the head
- Student what's the texture of the head?
Bugscope Team It is bumpy and hard...although it looks quite ridged, our fingers are too big to sense the ridges.
- Student why does it have a hexagon pattern on its head
Bugscope Team The cuticle in ants often does have a hexagonal pattern, and we think it may make the cuticle stronger, rather than being smooth.
- Guest do ants have hair on their heads
Bugscope Team yes they tend to have hair all over, but on insects we are supposed to call the hair setae (see-tee). They are all attached to nerves which are beneath the hard exoskeleton so that they can sense what is around them in their environment
- Student how big is the leafcutter ant?
Bugscope Team This ant is probably a centimeter long. The worker ants can be much larger.
- Guest what kind of ant is this
Bugscope Team THis is a leafcutter ant
- Guest how many ants do you think you have
- 12:46pm
- Bugscope Team Aditi there is only one ant in the 'scope today -- in a field of salt.
- Student Are the legs or claws sharp?
Bugscope Team They are sharp enough to hold onto your skin, but too small to hurt you.
- Bugscope Team they usually have sharp claws at the tips of the legs
- Bugscope Team the ends of the legs in insect -- the last several segments -- are called 'tarsi.'
- Bugscope Team 'insects'
- Student why do the feet look like suction cups?
Bugscope Team If you take the mag up you can see if they really do look like suction cups.
- Student how many joints does the leafcutter ant have?
Bugscope Team you mean on the leg? we can count them
- Bugscope Team this type of ant has very long legs
- 12:51pm
- Student yes the leg.
- Student What is that big blob in the middle?
- Student do the claws help them stay on the ground?
Bugscope Team if you watch insects walk you will see that some of them do not walk on their claws; the last few tarsi sometimes function collectively like a foot.
- Bugscope Team it looks like there are about 10 joints. I think there are five tarsi, and I have to look up the other segment names -- one of which is a femur
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team if you take the mag down, when you have time, you can count the joints
- Guest what are all these spots around it
Bugscope Team that is the double stick carbon tape we stick the insects on. There are some squares around it as well that is the salt
- Student salt
- Guest why do leafcutter ants cut leaves
Bugscope Team They bring the leaves back to their nests and they grow fungus on the leaves. They use the fungus to feed the baby ants.
- Bugscope Team this is a big cricket in the scope
- Bugscope Team if you watch a katydid, for example, when it is walking, you can see that it holds its claws above the surface of the ground.
- Bugscope Team it has some scales all over it
- Student are those vains on his head?
Bugscope Team those are the scales I just mentioned
- Teacher Can you please give the controls to Mrs. Leary
Bugscope Team mrs leary has control now
- Student what's that long tube on it's head?
Bugscope Team that is one of its antenna
- Student Where are the eyes?
Bugscope Team theres a big eye to the very lower right
- 12:56pm
- Student do they have joints in their antena
Bugscope Team yes they have many joints in their antennae that allow the antennae to curve.
- Bugscope Team They look like veins, don't they? We think they are not veins but perhaps fungal fibers, or even web.
- Student Is that hair on the anntenae or little spikes?
Bugscope Team they look like little spikes -- some of them are sensory -- sensitive to touch or tactile stimuli. and some are chemosensory -- they can smell chemical signals with them.
- Guest why does the antenna have spikes
- Student what is the average life span of a cricket?
Bugscope Team the adults live around 2-3 weeks
- Student what's inside of the antenna
Bugscope Team Inside the antennae are nerves, blood, and some muscles
- Guest this is a cricket right
- Student how long is the antenna
- Guest how do crickets chirp
Bugscope Team They can chirp in one of two ways...they can either scrape their leg against a part of their wing or they can rub their wings together
- Guest when do they mate
- Student cool
- Student why does it have little bumps on it
- Bugscope Team what we think of as blood in insects is called hemolymph
- Guest do you like your job
Bugscope Team Yes, I get to travel, to work outside, and to meet lots of interesting people
- Student whats there diet
Bugscope Team Crickets will eat anything...rotten food, glue, garbage, other crickets, dog food...anything.
- Student is that all hair
- Guest can you show us their wings
- Student what is this
- Student What is this
- Student how many bones are there in a cricket
Bugscope Team insects and many other arthropods that resemble insects are invertebrates, meaning they do not have a backbone, and insects do not have bones at all. Instead, they have an exoskeleton, a shell.
- 1:02pm
- Guest how many eggs do they lay at one time
Bugscope Team Crickets usually only lay one egg at a time
- Student this looks really weird
- Guest how big is a cricket
Bugscope Team they are about two to three inches long
- Student does flying get them exgausted
Bugscope Team Yes, flight is very energetically expensive for insects, especially for large insects like bumblebees and big katydids
- Student those look like little strings
- Student is that a wing
- Guest what aare we zoomed in on
- Student Why is this
- Student why is a part of it look darker
- Teacher Can you help us find the wing
Bugscope Team I think we see the wing now, in the middle of the image.
- Student what is the stuff that islike dandruff
Bugscope Team Those are scales that have rubbed off of a moth
- Guest how often do they lay eggs
- Student is that the inside
- Guest what do crickets eat
- Teacher What's under the wings?
- Student what is the period of time that they can fly for?
Bugscope Team Most insects can only fly for short periods of time...maybe 10-20 minutes without becoming exhausted. There are exceptions of course, there are always exceptions with insects
- Student Why is the wing split up in to parts
Bugscope Team some insects have four wings, and some have two. flies are called Diptera because they have only two wings (the 'di' means two, and the 'ptera' means wing, like in the dinosaur pteranodon.
- Student is there colony in the ground
- Student How biig is a baby cricket
Bugscope Team Pretty small...the first instars can be the size of a fruit fly.
- Student does a cricet have any blood in it
Bugscope Team Crickets and other insects have blood...but it is insect blood not mammal blood. Insect blood is clear or greenish. It is not red because it does not carry oxygen like our blood does.
- Student is this the wing?
- Student do they eat other insects
Bugscope Team Crickets will eat other insects if the other insects are dead.
- Student How big are crickets?
Bugscope Team they vary between species, but the average is anywhere from ½-1 inch
- Teacher Can you give me back the controls please
- 1:07pm
- Bugscope Team you got it Ms S
- Guest what part of a cricket are we zoomed in on
- Student do they ever get sick from eating all of that garbage
Bugscope Team Nope, it is their job. I guess they could get sick if they ate some sort of insect pathogen, just like you could get sick if your food had a human pathogen in it.
- Teacher thanks
- Bugscope Team hard to tell just where we are now
- Student do crickets get sick for eating anying
- Guest where do crickets like to live
Bugscope Team They like to live in dark damp places, like under leaves and rocks and in gardens. They hide during the day and come out at night.
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Student what is a palp
- Guest what is that tube like thing
- Student where is the jaw on the cricket
- Student whats pathogen?
Bugscope Team An organism that causes a disease--like chicken pox or a cold
- Guest are those its legs
- Student Is it flaky?
- Bugscope Team palps are mouthparts that insects use to taste and manipulate their food
- Bugscope Team the tube-like thing was one of the palps, which are often, in other insects, not open tubes like that
- Student what colors do they come in
Bugscope Team they come in black, brown, yellow-brown, reddish -- earth tones
- Teacher What is the cricket laying on?
Bugscope Team all the insects are sitting on double stick carbon tape with a dab of silver paint. This helps to ground any charge there might be
- Guest what are a crickets main preadators
- Bugscope Team apparently if you listen to how many chirps they emit each minute, divide this count by 4, and adding the number 40, you will arrive at the approximate Fahrenheit temperature outside.
- Guest how many legs does a cricket have
- Bugscope Team a cricket is an insect, and insects, as adults, have six legs
- Student what is that bump on it
- Bugscope Team this is one of the sowbugs
- Student what is the average size of a sowbug
Bugscope Team Around here sowbugs are usually 7 to 10 mm long
Bugscope Team most are about an inch or so long
- Student what is the stuff that looks like fungus
- Bugscope Team it has dirt on its armor
- Student is that fuz!!!
- 1:12pm
- Student How is it attached ti its exo skeloten
- Student how many legs does it have on it
- Guest what do sow bugs eat
Bugscope Team sowbugs eat decaying plants and animals, and some living plants
- Student are those hairs on its legs?
- Student whers its eeye
- Teacher Can we see the gills
- Guest what colors do sowbugs come in
Bugscope Team Many beautiful shades of brown, gray, and black
- Student does it have a tail
- Student does it have scaley skin
- Student what does it eat
- Student where do they live
- Guest is sow bugs one word or two
Bugscope Team it technically should be one because they are not really bugs...so it should be sowbug
- Guest are they bad for the world
Bugscope Team they are not bad for the world. They are decomposers and the break down dead plants and help them turn back into soil.
- Bugscope Team giant isopods (a type of huge rolypoly that lives in the sea) gets to be 7.5 to 14.5 in long and 3 lbs heavy
- Bugscope Team Aditi I think it is more commonly two words.
- Student how many specie are there
- Student were is its mouth?
- Student Is that a vain
- Guest do you hae any other bugs for us
- Bugscope Team it has a clump of dirt on it as you can see
- Student how many times does itmolt in its lifetime
Bugscope Team I have read that they molt four or five times; it likely depends on the species.
- Bugscope Team Ms Shapiro the preset we have labeled as a 'slater' is another sowbug.
- Student can we see inside
- Teacher Is that the ovipositor
Bugscope Team those are called terminal exopods, and they may be able to sense touch and make the sowbug curl up.
- Guest what animals like to eat sowbugs
Bugscope Team Lizards, snakes, spiders, small mammals, birds (if they can find them)
- 1:17pm
- Guest what is an ovipositor
- Student do isopods have teeth or something to chew food with?
- Student does it have the same type of eye as an ant
- Guest is it true that antlions eat silver ants
Bugscope Team I think antlions like all types of ants.
- Guest what is an isopods
- Student how long does it live?
- Student where do they lay eggs
- Teacher What are we looking at?
Bugscope Team this is the last few segments of the sowbug body
- Student what do those claw like things do
- Student what is the texture of the isopod?
Bugscope Team the isopod would feel kind of like a fingernail to us
- Student Does there exoskeleton have hair
- Guest annie, I was asking because I read in a magazine that they do -just wondering
Bugscope Team Antlions really like ants...silver, red, black..all ants
- Bugscope Team In most species , the female releases the eggs into a ventral brood chamber where they are incubated until after hatching. Some species incubate their eggs and juveniles in pockets of the body which open from the brood chamber, while others incubate them internally.
- Bugscope Team Ms Shapiro go to preset 15 if you would like.
- Guest Can I control the microscope
- 1:22pm
- Student How strong is the exoskeleton
- Teacher Thank you, but we need to leave.
- Student Thankyou for showing us these amazing pictures!!!
- Student thank you
- Student We really enjoyed the experience
- Bugscope Team Oh I am sorry I wanted you to stay longer.
- Student do they alot of eggs
- Guest how many schools have you done one of these for
- Bugscope Team I guess it is alright. There is a professor here who would like to use the 'scope.
- Teacher Thanks Scot Cate and Annie for your great answers
- Bugscope Team Aditi over 450 sessions, I think.
- Teacher How can we access the pictures and chat
Bugscope Team you can visit your member page (http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-137/) at anytime to view chat and images from today
- Bugscope Team Thank you Ms Shapiro!
- Guest thank you
- Bugscope Team it is found in the transcript, which you can view anonymized or not (by logging in at the bottom)
- Guest is our antlion dead-sutherland elementary
Bugscope Team it might be by now
- Bugscope Team Okay I am shutting down the 'scope... Thank you!
- Bugscope Team Good bye!
- Guest bye
- Bugscope Team if it's not dead, it is atleast frozen
- Teacher hope to see you again
- Teacher bye
- Bugscope Team Yes we will see you again. Thank you!
- Bugscope Team please do another session with us next year
- Guest your scope and equipment looks really cool
