Connected on 2009-06-23 09:00:00 from , MA, US
- 7:11am
- Bugscope Team making the sample now
- 8:14am
- 8:20am
- 8:26am
- 8:31am
- Bugscope Team Now we are making the presets.
- 8:38am
- 8:43am
- 8:49am
- 8:55am
- Bugscope Team Good morning! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team The session is unlocked, ready to go if you would like to drive.
- 9:01am
- Bugscope Team You can choose from among the presets on the right side of the chat box here, and/or you can use the controls to the right of the image to drive directly.
- Bugscope Team Be sure to let us know when you have questions!
- Bugscope Team and let us know if you have any trouble with the controls, the size of the screen, etc.
- Teacher Hi, We are just getting set up and finishing snack! We'll be ready in just a minute. Thanks!
- Bugscope Team this is an ambush bug
- Teacher where does this insect usually live?
- Bugscope Team ambush bugs lie in wait on flowers and leaves, and they attack and eat other insects that land on the leaves or flowers
- Bugscope Team so you might find it on a bush, but it is camouflaged.
- Bugscope Team it looks kind of like a wilted piece of a leaf
- Bugscope Team Good morning Tollsy!
- Teacher are there different kinds of ambush bugs
- Guest good morning!!!
- Bugscope Team Yes lots of different kinds, different colors
- 9:06am
- Bugscope Team they have a piercing proboscis they use to spear their prey, and suck the juice out of it
- Bugscope Team this is the carbon tape background; this is what all of the insects are stuck to
- Bugscope Team the edge of the world
- Bugscope Team this is an ant, to the right
- Bugscope Team you cna use click to center if you'd like, but you are doing a very good job as it
- Bugscope Team is
- Bugscope Team here we can see one of the ant's forelimbs
- Bugscope Team the jointed parts of the 'arm' toward its end are called 'tarsi'
- Bugscope Team there is a tiny claw at the end of the tarsi
- Bugscope Team and do you see how the any has a kind of 'knee'?
- Bugscope Team there is another little piece there that looks like a very small comb if you look up close
- Bugscope Team at the 'knee'
Bugscope Team it's 'cause I have been talking more than answering questions
- Teacher why aren't the questions showing up on the left side of the screen so we can see them? we are having a hard time reading the scrolling sentences at the bottom of the screen
Bugscope Team that is because I have not been highlighting them, like this
- 9:11am
- Teacher thank you
Bugscope Team now you can see its mouthparts, and its antennae
- Teacher what's on our screen now
Bugscope Team to the right is an ant, on its back
- Teacher what is the part in the middle- the circle part under the antennae
Bugscope Team in the middle of the head is the mouth
- Teacher what kind of ant is this
Bugscope Team it is a little red ant; we don't know what species -- there are probably more than a few thousand ant species
- Bugscope Team Good morning Rob!
- Bugscope Team Rob is an entomologist!
- Teacher what is this???!!!!!!
Bugscope Team I am sorry I am not sure where we are just now. Can you move a little to the north?
- Bugscope Team Good morning! Sorry I'm running a little late.
Bugscope Team Rob we have been doing a lot of text highlighting so the class can read the questions/answers to the left of the chat box
- 9:16am
- Bugscope Team now to the north a tiny bit again?
- Teacher what are the hairlike things
Bugscope Team spines, bristles, setae...
Bugscope Team insects do not have skin - they have an exoskeleton, which is kind of like wearing a coat of armor
Bugscope Team They are used for a variety of purposes - touch, taste, smell, and defense.
- Teacher what are they used for
Bugscope Team so as Rob says, the hairlike things are used for a variety of purposes; often they are used as touch sensors, or taste sensors
- Teacher what body part are we looking at now
Bugscope Team I'll let Scott field these - I am not quite sure where we are. It looks like a leg to me. :)
- Teacher where do they live and why are they called a deerfly
Bugscope Team I've seen deerflies in the woods. They are related to horseflies, and both are named, I think, because they will drink the blood of that animal. But they will bite humans, too.
- 9:22am
- Teacher what strength is the magnification of this microscope
Bugscope Team (I moved us to the compound eye). this microscope will magnify more than 200,000x
- Teacher is that the compound eye
- Teacher what's the gooey stuff on the right of the eye
Bugscope Team a lot of times we don't know --- the fly got into some kind of mess
Bugscope Team sometimes they throw up, or their 'blood' oozes out
- Bugscope Team haltere!
Bugscope Team be sure and try other presets if you would like
- 9:27am
- Bugscope Team these are some of the tiny hairs (setae) on the body of the fly
- Bugscope Team this is cool!
- Bugscope Team this is a mosquito compound eye, up close
- Teacher what is an ommatidia
Bugscope Team ommatidia are the individual facets of the compound eye
Bugscope Team Each one has its own lens and nerve cord, like a human eye but very bad at seeing. Thousands of them together, though, can make a pretty good image.
- Teacher why does this look like a brain
Bugscope Team because it shrunk after the mosquito died. Its eye dried up
- Bugscope Team singular would be 'ommatidium'
- Bugscope Team usually it would be full and round, like a soccer ball
- Teacher back to the deerfly- is it big or small
- Bugscope Team it's about 2 centimeters long
- 9:32am
- Bugscope Team which is about an inch
- Teacher when the mosquito is alive, is this part squishy
Bugscope Team it appears to be hard, but I'm not sure
Bugscope Team The eye is made of chitin, just like the exoskeleton. To another mosquito it would be pretty hard, but to you the entire mosquito is squishy.
- Bugscope Team wow this is pretty high magnification
- Bugscope Team if there were bacteria here we would be able to see them quite well
- Bugscope Team see the little round thing in the folded part of the ommatidium?
Bugscope Team the round thing is a brochosome,and it came from another insect -- a leafhopper
- Teacher what are the big circles on the ommatidia
Bugscope Team if you take the mag a little lower you can see how it all fits together
- 9:38am
- Bugscope Team now we see more and more of the eye
- Bugscope Team it is very shriveled!
- Bugscope Team now we can see the other eye as well
- Bugscope Team Monster!
Bugscope Team it is still hard to recognize this as a mosquito, isn't it? you can see the antenna, now
- Teacher when a tick is a baby is it's exoskeleton harder than an adult
Bugscope Team I think it is very similar to when it is an adult, except it has only six legs when it is a baby
Bugscope Team Different parts of the tick have thinner or thicker exoskeletons, depending on if it will expand during feeding.
Bugscope Team Both young and old ticks will feed on blood, so they always need some thin exoskeleton.
- Bugscope Team ticks are arachnids -- they are related to spiders -- so they have eight legs when they grow up
Bugscope Team if you look at the tick's exoskeleton up close you will see that it has tiny ridges like cardboard -- it looks like it is corrugated. those ridges are so that it can expand to several times the current size
- Teacher is this insect falling apart- it looks like the body parts are scramble up
Bugscope Team yes! you are right. It took a beating to get to us!
Bugscope Team we do our best to put your insects in the microscope in the condition they arrive.
- 9:46am
- Teacher can we see the proboscis on this insect?
Bugscope Team now we are looking at the proboscis. all of the biting and sucking apparatus is inside this sheath
- Teacher how does a tick transmit lyme disease
Bugscope Team It moves in through the mouth while it's feeding, but it takes a long time - over a day. If you find the tick soon enough, you usually prevent it from transmitting.
- Teacher matt wants to know if you're having fun answering questions
Bugscope Team this is fun for us; it is our favorite thing to do
Bugscope Team Absolutely, wouldn't be here otherwise!
Bugscope Team we love to look at these cool images and help you understand them better, too! Isn't it fun to look at these up close?
- Teacher can we look inside of it
Bugscope Team I wish we could. We would have had to prepare it a different way so the mouthparts would come out of the sheath
- Bugscope Team there are at least four cutting blades, thin and leaflike, inside of this sheath
Bugscope Team I think I want to scream thinking about four cutting blades in there. Really, Scott?
Bugscope Team Hey, at least it also gives you some anesthetic while its feeding. Horseflies and deerflies will just rip you right open. Ugh!
- 9:52am
- Teacher we're having fun too, but we're talking a lot and even screaming
Bugscope Team Yay!
- Bugscope Team I think you should go to preset no. 22
- Bugscope Team Horseflies and deerflies have slashing mouthparts, but we could not see that on our sample here today.
- Teacher do you have any presets of ticks
Bugscope Team no I am sorry no ticks today. when you go to your part of the Bugscope webpage later, to see this session, you can search for ticks, and for mosquito stylets
- Teacher why are there hairs on the proboscis
Bugscope Team the mosquito uses its proboscis to feel around the surface of your skin, trying to find a good place to push the fascicle, which is inside, in. those tiny hairs help it feel and likely taste yuor skin
- 9:58am
- Teacher why does the proboscis look like a lip
Bugscope Team It is like a lip and opens like a sheath and sometimes we can see the fascicle inside
- Bugscope Team Here's your homepage: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-066/
- Bugscope Team you can return to this page anytime and see the chat and images!
- 10:04am
- Teacher ok, we have to go now. thanks for all the fun and interesting information, too da loo
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team See you next time!
- Bugscope Team thank you!
- Bugscope Team No problem, thanks for the questions!
