Connected on 2009-09-17 12:45:00 from State College, PA, US
- 12:14pm
- Bugscope Team pumping down -- taking its time to reach vacuum
- Bugscope Team the samples, although they seem very dry, must be juicier than we'd thought
- Bugscope Team 5.0 x 10-4
- Bugscope Team 4.5...
- Bugscope Team the magic number is 1.3
- 12:22pm
- Bugscope Team 2.3 x 10-4
- Bugscope Team 2.0
- Bugscope Team 1.8
- Bugscope Team 1.6
- 12:29pm
- Bugscope Team 1.5
- Bugscope Team 1.4
- Bugscope Team 1.3
- 12:39pm
- 12:44pm
- Bugscope Team interesting flat places on the tarsu
- Bugscope Team similar to this -- the pulvillus
- Bugscope Team tarsi
- Bugscope Team hi!
- Bugscope Team Hello!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope 2009!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher Radio Park room 3 is online
- Bugscope Team cool
- Teacher What are we seeing?
- Bugscope Team we are finishing up presets, we'll be done in a sec
- Bugscope Team It took longer than we expected for these to pump down, so we are running a bit late setting up
- Bugscope Team this is one of the cerci
- Bugscope Team they are different in these kind of roaches
- Bugscope Team now it looks like Cate is imaging one of the heads
- Bugscope Team once we are done we will give control over to you
- Bugscope Team shortly
- Bugscope Team you can see the presets to the right of the chat box
- Bugscope Team you will be able to choose from among the presets, to get started, or you can drive around on your own
- Bugscope Team compound eye!
- Bugscope Team roaches are often very smooth, streamlined, not super specialized since they can live in many diverse environments
- 12:49pm
- Bugscope Team just a couple more presets and we'll be ready
- Bugscope Team thanks for being patient with us, sometimes the scope needs extra time for the vacuum to come down
- Bugscope Team or not super specialized because they must be able to live in diverse environments, maybe that is a better way to phrase it
- Bugscope Team touching the cerci, or cercopods, often results in an automatic fleeing response
- Bugscope Team oksy, we are done with presets
- Bugscope Team i just unlocked the session, you should see controls for the scope on the right now: magnify, navigation, focus and adjust
- 12:54pm
- Bugscope Team this is one of the cercopods
- Teacher Why does it have hairs?
- Bugscope Team the hairs are often sensory
- Bugscope Team all insects have those hairs, they are called setae, and the help the insect to sense its environment
- Bugscope Team insects are a lot hairier than they seem.
- Bugscope Team setae is pronounced sea-tea
- Bugscope Team mechanosensory like cat or rat whiskers, thermosensory, for hot/cold sensing, and chemosensory, for smelling
- Bugscope Team They are connected to nerves underneath the exoskeleton to send feedback about the environment- like temperature, touch, taste/smell
- Teacher We think that it is interesting that they can taste with their cerci instead of their mouth. Can they also taste with their mouth?
- Bugscope Team I am sorry I did not mean to imply that they were neccessarily tasting with their cerci
- Bugscope Team I meant to say that that is what the setae are capable of on an insect
- 1:00pm
- Bugscope Team these setae are more for touch- They can tell is something is coming up behind it
- Bugscope Team That's how they can react so fast and run to get out of trouble
- Bugscope Team now we see one of the claws, and in between is the pulvillus, which is probably deflated a bit,
- Teacher What does the pulvillus do?
- Bugscope Team many insects that can climb on vertical surfaces have a pad or a few pads, called a pulvillus, that have tenent setae on them, that allow them to stick to walls, for example
- Bugscope Team if you go up close you may find out more about this one
- Bugscope Team It's usually covered in oils, which is what makes it sticky.
- Bugscope Team this seems more like a sticky pad, and it has a kind of suction cup appearance
- Bugscope Team listen to Rob...
- Bugscope Team If you have a piece of glass and a good microscope, you can actually see insect "footprints" from the pulvillis as they walk around.
- Bugscope Team The residue from the oil is left behind with each step.
- Teacher We were wondering why the cockroaches are so sticky?
- Bugscope Team Rob is an entomology grad student who has logged on to help us today.
- 1:05pm
- Bugscope Team I'm not really sure. I haven't had too much experience with sticky cockroaches!
- Teacher Hi, Rob. We're glad that you're here to help us. We are interested in the oil
- Bugscope Team if you were not able to stick, assuming you were a cockroach, you could be sliding around all of the time
- Bugscope Team the trick is to be able to stick when you wish but also to move quickly when you wish
- Teacher Patrick think that we have oils on our skin, are they like the ones on the cockroach.
- Bugscope Team you can see that some insects rest their weight on more proximal tarsi when they walk -- not the terminal or distal tarsi
- Bugscope Team Yeah! It's the same idea. Our oils aren't as useful, but they are chemically similar.
- Teacher Are the molds like germs? Are the molds harmful?
Bugscope Team Most of what we see here are probably harmless for the insects. But there are molds and fungus that can enter through holes in the insect's body and cause infections.
- Bugscope Team mold spores around the base of a seta
- Bugscope Team they are harmful in a way, but also helpful -- if things did not rot we would be over our heads in dead stuff
- Teacher Are the molds harmful to people when we hold them?
Bugscope Team I would say that they are always present, in the air for example, and on other things we touch.
- Bugscope Team We actually use molds and fungi to control pests. It's much better than using pesticides.
- 1:11pm
- Bugscope Team so they are likely not a huge problem when we handle critters like these
- Bugscope Team they look very much like pollen but are generally smaller and less spikey
- Teacher Is this a male or female antenna?
Bugscope Team this is one of the dried roach antennae
Bugscope Team In some insects, it's easy to tell males and females by looking at the antennae, but unfortunately roaches are not one of these insects. ;)
- Bugscope Team We aren't sure which is male or female
- Bugscope Team some of the setae we see here help the insect sense how bent its antennae really are
- Bugscope Team was the fresh roach the female and the older dried roach the male?
- Bugscope Team for hissing cockroaches: Males have large horns on the front part of their bodies, directly behind their head. They also have hairy antennaes. Females are smoother in appearance, possessing only small bumps. They have smooth antennaes.
- 1:16pm
- Bugscope Team The fresh antenna we have on here looks more hairy than this one. So I think this might belong to a female.
- Teacher The fresh antennae were from a male and female. We were hoping to see a difference. We thought from our observations that the male had more hairs than the female.
Bugscope Team You're probably on to something. In a lot of insects, the males have more hairs so that they can more easily smell and taste the females.
- Bugscope Team oh that is my fault -- I am sorry -- I forgot that we had discussed this.
- Bugscope Team this one looks more hairy
- Bugscope Team the kind of setae that are chemosensory often have a tiny pore at the tip
- Teacher Do you know why the antenna have sections?
Bugscope Team Well, all the parts of the insect are divided into sections. It's how it can bend while still being armored.
- Bugscope Team but it is not always setae that are responsible for smelling or tasting -- sometimes it is placoid sensilla
- Bugscope Team or much smaller setae that resemble taste buds...
- Bugscope Team see how there are different sizes of setae here?
- Bugscope Team small ones, and pores, and larger ones...
- Teacher We can see black holes in the antenna. Do you know what they are?
Bugscope Team They are where setae broke off.
- 1:22pm
- Teacher That is just what Aaron suggested.
- Bugscope Team so that hole goes underneath the exoskeleton, to nerves underneath... pretty cool huh?
- Bugscope Team good guess Aaron!
- Bugscope Team these are palps, which are like accessory mouthparts
- Bugscope Team they are extra legs that help the roach feed
- Bugscope Team but they're not really legs -- that is we do not count them as legs
- Teacher What are we seeing here?
Bugscope Team The fiinger-like things are palps, which are mouth parts insects use to taste or manipulate its food
- Teacher How do they work?
Bugscope Team when you watch the insect eating, the palps help direct food toward the mouth; they are also often chemosensory, and as Cate says they can help the insect taste what it might be eating
- Teacher We are seeing setae on everything. We are wondering if there are setae on the armor of abdomen?
Bugscope Team you can drive to the spiracle and look for setae near it, on the abdominal segments
Bugscope Team Like Scot says, you never know where you're going to find setae. You'll just have to look!
- 1:27pm
- Bugscope Team no setae on the surface of the compound eye
- Bugscope Team but that is not true of all insects
- Bugscope Team fruit flies have little bristle-like setae between the ommatidia on their compound eyes
- Bugscope Team the individual ommatidia are hard to make out here
- Bugscope Team they are very smooth on the surface of roach, grasshopper, cricket, and praying mantis eyes
- Bugscope Team this is one of the setae that Cate found this morning
- Bugscope Team insects can close their setae when they want to hold their breath
- 1:33pm
- Bugscope Team oops I meant their *spiracles*
- Bugscope Team can we go to a lower mag here and look around?
- Teacher How does the spiracle work?
Bugscope Team It is a breathing hole for insects- much like our nose. Sometimes you can even see little hairs in it. They can open and close when needed. They are connected to the insect version of lungs.
- Teacher Do you mean spiracles or setae?
Bugscope Team spiracles are the openings to the tracheae -- to the air-collecting ducts through which insects breathe
- Teacher Tell us more about spiracles and hissing
- Teacher sure
- 1:39pm
- Bugscope Team setae are the hairlike structures
- Bugscope Team spiracles are holes on the side of the abdomen, and air goes into these spiracles and provide nutrients from the air. they don't have lungs like humans do, however, so they can't breath in and out, at least not like we can.
- Bugscope Team They hiss by forcefully expelling air out of the second pair of spiracles on the abdomen.
- Bugscope Team There are some lung-like adaptations in some insects. Grasshoppers, for instance, will pump their abdomens like a bellows to force air in and out.
- Teacher Since you mentioned lungs, do they have hearts and blood?
Bugscope Team In a way. We call it 'hemolymph' instead of blood, and there is a muscle called a heart that moves it around in the body.
- Bugscope Team setae, microsetae, trichae, microtrichae, spines, and bristles are all hairlike structures, and some of those terms are used interchangeably, sometimes.
- Bugscope Team insects have an open circulatory system, unlike ours
- Teacher Are there veins?
- Bugscope Team so the hemolymph flows freely inside of the body
- Bugscope Team Nope, no veins.
- Bugscope Team Also, insect blood carries no oxygen, just nutrients. That's because insects get their air from the spiracles.
- Teacher Do they brains?
Bugscope Team They do. Not particularly large ones, though.
- Bugscope Team they do have ducts in some cases, sort of like veins, but they are used, for example, to inflate the proboscis of a moth or butterfly with hemolymph
- 1:44pm
- Bugscope Team fruit fly brains are well-studied and characterized; much of the fruit fly brain is devoted to processing visual signals -- to processing what the eyes see
- Teacher Thank you for showing us all the pictures and for all the information. From Room 3 at Radio Park. Bye, we need to get ready to go home. Thanks a million.
- Bugscope Team Thanks for the questions!
- Bugscope Team thank you for using bugscope! We hope you apply again.
- Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team all the chat and images are saved to your member page, don't forget to check it out: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-089
- 1:52pm
- Bugscope Team okay, nice session, am closing things down now
- Bugscope Team and don't forget, all the chat and images are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-089
- Bugscope Team good bye!
