Connected on 2009-09-29 09:00:00 from Yarmouth, ME, US
- 8:54am
- Bugscope Team presets are done! we are ready
- Bugscope Team these guys (toad bugs) eat smaller arthropods
- Bugscope Team one genus has no tarsi on the forelimbs -- its claws are attached directly to the tibia
- Bugscope Team hey hey
- Bugscope Team yay Annie!
- 9:01am
- Bugscope Team here we are looking at the inside of the exoskeleton, where it folded out when the pin was pushed in
- 9:12am
- Bugscope Team hello!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team hi there
- Teacher Hi
- Bugscope Team Yay Hi!
- Bugscope Team let us know when you have questions or problems
- Bugscope Team there are several of us here to answer questions about the samples, or the 'scope, or anything else...
- Bugscope Team okay, we are ready to roll!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope yarmouth!
- Bugscope Team beetle head!
- Bugscope Team glad you are online. please feel free to ask any questions
- Teacher What are the two little claws in front of its mouth?
Bugscope Team those are its hinged jaws. They open out like a gate
- Teacher How many facets are on the beetle's compound eye?
Bugscope Team Hundred! Insects vary in the number of facets that they have. Insects that fly during the day have many more facets than insects that live underground or that are active at night.
- 9:17am
- Teacher What kind of beetle is it? Margo
Bugscope Team I am sorry we do not know -- we may be able to zero in on the species by getting a longer view
- Teacher Is there texture to the eye or is it smooth? Noah
Bugscope Team if you drive to the eye you can check its texture out by zooming in on it
- Bugscope Team try click on the preset #14 to get back to the beetle head
- Bugscope Team if you click to drive, then you must click to stop
- Bugscope Team Yes, if we zoom out a bit and drive around I might be able to tell you what kind of beetle it is
- Bugscope Team using click to center is easier than click to drive
- Bugscope Team sometimes it is easier to use Click to Center
- Bugscope Team try click to center yarmouth, it should provide better control
- Bugscope Team the mouth!
- Bugscope Team ah cool, now you can see the chompers better
- Bugscope Team and now the compound eye
- Bugscope Team yay now we see the compound eye -- good driving!
- Bugscope Team good job driving!
- Teacher We're counting the sides-- hexagons!
- Teacher We think it looks bumpy, not smooth.
- Bugscope Team just wait till you see the fly compound eye!
- Teacher What are the hairs on it? Annie
- Teacher Why does it have hairs?
Bugscope Team those hairs are called setae (sea-tea), and they help insects to feel their environment. all insects have setae, tons of them!
- 9:22am
- Bugscope Team yes, the hexagon shape allows the eye to have a curved surface, it couldn't really be curved if the facets were square
- Teacher Does it have any other eyes besides those two compound eyes? Charlie
Bugscope Team Many insects (but not this beetle) also have three "simple" eyes on the top of their head. These simple eyes help them to sense the length of the day and the position of the sun in the sky.
- Bugscope Team insects don't have nerves in their skin, they don't have skin at all. instead they have an exoskeleton. the hairs (setae) stick through the exoskeleton and connect to nerves underneath. that is how they feel things.
- Teacher How big and how long is it in real life? Jackson
Bugscope Team I think it is a little more than a centimeter long
- Bugscope Team the setae (hairs) on the surface of the eye are likely touch sensors; fruit flies have them between nearly all of the ommatidia (the facets of the eye). the touch sensors can help the insect gauge the speed and direction of the wind
- Teacher How does the hair come out of the eye if it is hard?Caroline
Bugscope Team inbetween the eye facets there are little holes, the setae stick through there.
- Teacher What are the facets of the eye made out of?
Bugscope Team All of the parts of the insect's body are made of chitin+protein+water--all three of those chemical compounds linked together into very strong bonds that make the insect's cuticle
- Teacher Are there germs on this bug? Caitlin
Bugscope Team if you take the magnification up from here we can check to see if there are any bacteria on the surface of the eye
- Bugscope Team be sure to check out some of the other presets so that you can compare this beetle with other insects
- 9:28am
- Teacher How fast can this beetle go?
Bugscope Team This is probably not a super fast beetle. Not as fast as a cockroach...cockroaches are among the fastest running insects
- Teacher Are those bacteria?
- Bugscope Team bacteria are around 2um big (a little smaller than the scale bar shows in the lower left) and they look like rods
- Bugscope Team i don't think this is bacteria, which is more worm looking. this might be dirt and stuff like that?
- Teacher If the thorax on insects is thinner, is it the weakest of the 3 parts of the body? Noah
Bugscope Team I would say that the abdomen is the weakest of the three sections. It is the softest and the most full of fluid and guts and stuff.
- Teacher What is the life cycle of this insect and how long does it take? Trevor
Bugscope Team The life cycles of a single insect usually takes a full year, but can be faster or slower depending on the insect and the place where the insect lives. The fruit flies in my compost pile have a generation every two weeks or so, while a butterfly usually has only a single generation. The life cycle of a insect with complete metamorphosis is egg, larvae (caterpillar), pupae (cocoon), then adult.
- Teacher How many insects are you an expert on? Joe
Bugscope Team I am an expert on a single family of beetles. But the term "expert" is sort of relative. I know a lot about many other insects as well.
- Bugscope Team here is the rollypoly you sent us
- Teacher Is it decomposing on the screen here? Carson
- 9:33am
- Teacher How long can pill bugs live?
Bugscope Team There can be two or three broods per year and their lifespan is about two years.
- Bugscope Team we do not see bacteria on insects very often, and when we do, we do not always know if they were there before the insect died. Often we do see mold or fungus.
- Bugscope Team oh and this pillbug is actually not an insect
- Bugscope Team pillbugs are crustaceans
- Teacher We're Mainers and we think it looks a bit like a lobster? Are they related?
Bugscope Team YES!!
- Teacher How many legs do pill bugs have? Andy
Bugscope Team You should count them on the screen!
- Bugscope Team totally!
- Teacher How long are their legs? Mairen
- Bugscope Team pillbugs are crustacians
- Teacher Scientists, do you have a favorite insect to study? Margeaux
Bugscope Team I like to study longhorned beetles the best.
- Teacher What are the two dark circles in the picture, near the legs? Eric
Bugscope Team that is where pieces of the leg fell off
- 9:38am
- Teacher Do you know how much it weighs? Carson
Bugscope Team this was a very small pillbug- a baby. I almost didn't see it. So this particular one weighs almost next to nothing.
- Teacher Are they scales or legs at the back? Caroline
Bugscope Team Those are sort of like legs. I think they are similar in structure to the swimmerets on a lobster's tail
- Bugscope Team the final two legs are called uropods
- Bugscope Team The giant isopod that lives in the ocean weighs 3.7 lb!
Bugscope Team ug!
- Bugscope Team Scot corrects me!
- Teacher Do they have any defense mechanism besides an exoskeleton? Noah
Bugscope Team Pillbugs can roll into a little ball until the predator leaves them alone.
- Teacher It looks like a hawk talon with flower petals!
- 9:43am
- Teacher What is a ladybug "palp"? Is it the underside? Caroline
Bugscope Team It is part of the ladybug's mouth. The are like a combination between a mouth and a tongue, they help the insect to taste and move its food.
- Bugscope Team many insects have developed chemical defenses against ants, which are fearsome predators. a lot of insects exude toxins to discourage ants from bothering them
Bugscope Team Ladybugs, like this one, exude a very smelly orange colored liquid from their joints when they are harassed. Ladybugs also apparently taste bad (although I have never tried one)
- Teacher What are the circular shapes above the ladybug? Charlie
Bugscope Team those are bubbles in the carbon tape we mount the insects/arthropods on; it is doublesided tape
- Teacher We have to go to recess. Thank you scientists from Mrs. Spencer's 3rd Grade!!!!
- Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Teacher We loved all the information you shared with us!!!
- Bugscope Team See you next year!
- Teacher Yes!!
- 9:53am
- 10:34am
- Bugscope Team hi jimmy
- Bugscope Team Hi Jimmy!
- Bugscope Team where are you from?
- 10:39am
- Bugscope Team hi Maddy!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team Maddy I just gave you control of the microscope.
- Guest Hi Scott
- Bugscope Team you should see controls to the right of the image, and you should be able to use them
- Guest Are you ready for our practice session
- Bugscope Team yes for sure
- Bugscope Team yep, we are ready as we can be
- Bugscope Team the last session was over a little early
- Bugscope Team you can have up to 25 or so students logged in from their own computers for the session
- Bugscope Team when you login for your session, you'll want to login as "Teacher", and any students should login as a "Student"
- Bugscope Team only one person can drive at a time, and we can confer control to whoever you wish
- Guest what are we looking at
- Bugscope Team this is a compound eye
- Bugscope Team those bumps are individual facets of the eye, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team you may click on one of the presets to change where you are, or you can drive
- Bugscope Team this is a fruit fly, and as Alex said it is one of the compound eyes
- 10:44am
- Bugscope Team there are a number of insects on the stub
- Bugscope Team if your students login themselves, they will be asking questions while you are driving the scope. as long as you don't have more than 15-20 students login at the same time, we should be able to answer most questions
- Bugscope Team click to center is sometimes easier to use when you know which way you're going and you can see that place or know you are approaching it
- Bugscope Team you can always improve the focus if you are just driving around
- Bugscope Team however, some teachers don't have their students login, instead they project their computer to a projector, and then the students ask the teacher questions, then the teacher types those questions to us
- Bugscope Team but we think that direct interaction with the students usually provides for a more engaging experience for the kids
- 10:49am
- Guest what part am I looking at?
- Bugscope Team these are a couple of the claws of the fruit fly
- Bugscope Team the tarsi are the terminal segments of the limbs, and here we see a pair of claws with the pulvillus in between
- Bugscope Team the pulvillus is a pad with sticky tenent setae on it
- Bugscope Team now the rolypoly
- Bugscope Team here's a pill bug
- Bugscope Team head is to the left
- Bugscope Team these are not insects, they are crustaceans
- Bugscope Team thet are isopods, meaning of course that all of their legs are shaped the same
- Bugscope Team they
- Bugscope Team are isopods, that is
- Guest Can we see the gills?
- Bugscope Team the gils are supposed to be located around where the leg connects with the main part of the body
- Bugscope Team well they are supposed to be here
- Bugscope Team they may be obscured by the legs
- 10:55am
- Bugscope Team yeah I am sorry I am not sure if we would recognize them if we saw them
- Guest Is this the eye?
- Bugscope Team yes!
- Guest Does the eye of the pill bug differ than that of a insect?
- Bugscope Team simple eyes as opposed to the compound eye you saw earlier
- Bugscope Team it looks much like spider eyes, or ocelli -- the simple eyes
- Bugscope Team pillbugs don't rely on their eyes very much, so they are very simple compared to say a fly's eye
- Bugscope Team it may be that what we saw is a compound eye but the individual facets are separated
- Bugscope Team here you can see the ant's compound eye
- Bugscope Team this is the ball and socket joint at the base of the antenna
- Bugscope Team something has chewed on this ant, and its mouthparts are missing
- Bugscope Team you are doing a good job driving
- Bugscope Team ewe, gross scott... ;)
- Bugscope Team some ants have much more primitive compound eyes, with fewer facets, and some ants do not have eyes at all
- 11:00am
- Bugscope Team see how the tarsi are missing -- it has no claw
- Bugscope Team and right there we would also expect to see lots of palps
- Bugscope Team a lovely beetle
- Bugscope Team their jaws, as those of almost all insects with jaws, open like a gate, not like our jaws
- Guest Did you have any luck getting the bees? What species of butterfly will we be looking at?
- Bugscope Team bees are here sitting next to me, for warmth
- Bugscope Team not sure what butterfly we will use -- a small one, and truncated at that
- Bugscope Team Cate will raid someone's collection for the butterfly.
- Bugscope Team i have a black swallowtail that looks pretty good to use
- 11:08am
- Bugscope Team Buckminster Fuller
- Guest That sounds good to me, Scott!
- Guest I think we are done practicing thanks for your time see you soon
- Bugscope Team thanks, see you online soon
- Bugscope Team see you soon
- Bugscope Team if you have any questions in the meantime, just email us at: bugscope@itg.uiuc.edu
- Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team ok, done? shut down session?
- Bugscope Team any last questions jimmy?
- Bugscope Team ok, good bye everyone, nice sessions
