Connected on 2010-02-24 11:00:00 from Chicago, IL, US
- 10:40am
- Bugscope Team session unlocked, we are ready to roll
- Bugscope Team start time is 11am
- 10:47am
- 10:53am
- Bugscope Team hi guys
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team hi steiger, welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team hello, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team we are ready for you anytime
- Teacher Thanks we are ready to roll too
- Bugscope Team please let us know if you have any questions
- Bugscope Team are your students going to login as well, or are you projection your screen?
- 10:58am
- Teacher we are using a projection screen
Bugscope Team cool, that's just fine
- Bugscope Team meeks, you should have control of the scope now, do you see controls on the right side?
- Teacher yes
- Bugscope Team excellent, you can use those controls to drive the scope anywhere you want. you can also click on any preset (lower right) and the scope will move there
- Bugscope Team right now, we are looking at a close-up of a fly's eye - a compound eye
- Bugscope Team this is a leafhopper, the front of its head
- Bugscope Team you can see it's two compound eyes on either side of its head, and the proboscis is sticking out of its mouth area in the lower right of the image
- Bugscope Team now you can see that this leafhopper was part of someone's collection
- Teacher It looks like there is a black hole in the abdomen. What is that?
Bugscope Team that is where someone stuck the bug with a pin
- Bugscope Team heh, check out the hole where someone stuck the bug with a pin
- Bugscope Team with the large pinhole through its thorax
- Bugscope Team some of these specimens were part of an entymologist's project
- Bugscope Team leafhoppers are true bugs (Hemiptera), and true bugs have piercing/sucking mouthparts
- Teacher What are the things coming out of the eye sockets?
Bugscope Team those are antennae. it has short spikey looking antennae
- Bugscope Team that long tube like thing above the black hole is the proboscis, that is what the leafhopper uses to feed. it sticks the proboscis into a plant and sucks out the juices, or something close to that...
- Bugscope Team we can see its proboscis now, right next to the hole
- 11:04am
- Teacher What do they use the antennae for?
Bugscope Team insects use their antennae like we use our eyes and ears and noses -- they help them sense their environment
- Bugscope Team or course insects also have eyes, which work mostly like ours
- Bugscope Team the antennae have chemosensors on them that help the insect smell chemicals in the air and on things they touch
- Teacher It looks like hair on its head? Is it?
Bugscope Team insects have lots of hair on them called setae (see-tee). They use these hairs to help them sense what's going on around them in their environment, like touch, taste/smell, vibrations (in the case of the spider)
- Bugscope Team this part of the head has ridges on it that we think are part of the pumping apparatus that allows the proboscis to suck liquids up
- 11:09am
- Bugscope Team be sure, when you would like, to choose another preset from what you can see on the right of this chat box
- Bugscope Team insects are invertebrates, meaning that they do not have backbones. they actually do not have any bones at all -- they have, instead, an exoskeleton. meaning that the support for the body is on the outside.
- Bugscope Team so insects have armor, in a way. it would be like if you wore a suit or armor -- you would not be able to feel things touching you
- Teacher How does this aphid eat?
- Bugscope Team insects, and other small arthropods, have those tiny setae that stick through the armor and help them sense their environment
- Bugscope Team they feed through a tube like the leafhopper
- Bugscope Team i dont see it here, but aphids have a proboscis (a long feeding tube like an elephant's trunk) they use to drink liquids
- Bugscope Team there are some adult insects that have no mouthparts, their only job is to reproduce
- Teacher So they only drink? No eating or chewing?
- Bugscope Team yes! lots of insects only drink
- Bugscope Team and spiders only drink, as well
- 11:14am
- Teacher But spiders bite! Do they just bite and let go?
- Bugscope Team spiders inject a corrosive venom into their prey that dissolves the inner organs, and the spiders then suck that all up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Team some insects do that as well, like assassin bugs
- Bugscope Team their own insides must not be soluble in the same venom
- Bugscope Team here is a fly head, with its mouth part sticking out
- Bugscope Team fruit flies and some other flies have sponging mouthparts
- Teacher Is that long thing with lips his mouth?
- Bugscope Team yes it is!
- Bugscope Team many flies spit saliva on their food that solubilizes (dissolves) their food, and then they sponge that up
- Bugscope Team some of the long setae we see now are mechanoreceptors -- they are much like cat or rat whiskers
- Bugscope Team the fly can sense wind, or touch, using those setae
- Bugscope Team those setae are needed because insects don't have nerves in their skin like humans do. in fact, insects don't have skin at all. they have a hard outer shell, called an exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team some setae sense hot/cold as well, and some sense certain chemicals, as Cate has said earlier
- 11:20am
- Teacher Are we looking at the bottom of the fly?
Bugscope Team yes this is the ventral side -- the underside
- Bugscope Team you can see the fly's compound eye now, and some of its palps, which are accessory mouthparts that help it taste and manipulate its food
- Bugscope Team we usually mount insects dorsal side down so we can see the mouthparts, and the arms/legs
- Teacher Do flies hear?
Bugscope Team they can hear, but they do not have ears
Bugscope Team well yes, but not with ears. they can hear with those hairs (setae), which vibrate and send signals to nerves underneath the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team they use their setae to help them sense vibrations in the air, which is what sound is
- Bugscope Team some insects, like the praying mantis, have what is said to be one big ear, and I think it is on the thorax -- the main body part to which the legs and arms and head and abdomen are attached
- Teacher What are those antennae sticking up used for?
Bugscope Team those are hairs, or setae, that are very stuff to help it tell the direction of the wind currents so it can navigate optimally
- Bugscope Team the little domes there are individual ommatidia -- the facets of the compound eye
- 11:25am
- Bugscope Team each one of those ommatidium has a lens in it
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes you would see lots of tiny images, and you would have better peripheral vision --- the ability to see around you without turning your head
- Bugscope Team and if you had compound eyes you would also be able to detect motion -- changes in the visual field -- much more readily
- Bugscope Team that is why flies can often avoid being caught -- they can see you coming
- Teacher how many ommatidium are there?
Bugscope Team on flying insects there can be thousands. some ground based insects have much fewer, like 40-100 maybe?
- Bugscope Team besides ommatidia, the facets of the compound eye, many flying insects have simple eyes, called ocelli, and their are usually three of those on the top of the head
- Bugscope Team preset no. 6 shows ocelli, and if you then zoom out you can see the compound eyes
- 11:31am
- Bugscope Team this is so cool!
- Bugscope Team see the mandibles of the leafcutter ant?
- Bugscope Team they are serrated, like a steak knife, so they can cut leaves
- Teacher what are the mandibles used for?
- Bugscope Team they cut leaves and carry them away
- Bugscope Team they have extra long legs that allow them to cut and carry large pieces of leaves
- Teacher do they turn the leaf into a milkshake? what do they do with the leaves?
Bugscope Team I believe they are like farmers. They dont eat the leaves, they gather them and put them somewhere else
- 11:36am
- Bugscope Team they use the pieces of leaves to grow fungus
- Bugscope Team thanks scot
- Bugscope Team it is like they farm fungus, and they chew the leaf parts to make them ready for the fungus to grow on them
- Bugscope Team the fungus is a crop, and both the ants and the fungus depend on each other for survival
- Bugscope Team the fungus provides the ants with nutrients they need, and the fungus even has special features called gongylidia that the ants feed from
- Bugscope Team uh oh!
- 11:41am
- Bugscope Team see the spider fangs?
- Teacher what are they used for? to take a bite?
Bugscope Team they use them to inject their prey with the venom, there are little poison pores near the tips that we cant really see.
- Bugscope Team sometimes we see little ridged places below the fangs that help the spider hold its prey while it is using its fangs
- Teacher why are spiders so hairy?
Bugscope Team those hairs are setae, and they help the spider to feel its way around. without those setae the spider would be blind as a bat!
- Bugscope Team above the fangs are those large lobes called chelicers, or chelicerae, that open left and right to spread the fangs
- Bugscope Team when a male spider wants to avoid being bitten by a female, in some cases he will put a little glob of web between the chelicers so the female cannot bite him
- Teacher so spiders don't have eyes?
Bugscope Team they do, but we can't see them from this view. They are on the top of the head, and we are looking at the bottom part
- Bugscope Team spiders often have eight eyes that are kind of like simple insect eyes, like ocelli
- Bugscope Team they have simple eyes, called ocelli. but they don't have the full range of sight like a fly would with a compound eye. some ants don't have any eyes at all
- 11:47am
- Bugscope Team spiders as far as we know do not ever have compound eyes
- Bugscope Team some spiders can see pretty well, but most rely more on the setae (the hairs) to help them sense vibration
- Teacher do the fangs ever break off? If so do they grow back?
Bugscope Team they probably do break off, sometimes
- Bugscope Team spiders can go through a lot of molts, if the spider survives until the next molt, it is possible its limbs that broke off previously will be grown back
- Bugscope Team some spiders molt, and it is possible that when they shed their old 'skin' and replace it with a fresh 'skin,' it would have new fangs
- Bugscope Team oops Cate beat me
- Teacher Is a spider an exoskeleton?
Bugscope Team that is a good question -- they have a soft body, but they do not have an internal skeleton. so I am not sure it is called an exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team I mean they have a soft cuticle -- the surface of the body
- 11:53am
- Teacher does a spider molt every year? And where do spiders go in the winter?
Bugscope Team Hmm, I'm not sure about what spiders do in the cold winter. But most spiders live 2-3 years tops, so they probably molt just once or twice?
- Bugscope Team okay i looked this up -- the cephalothorax, which is the head/body combination -- is hardened, whereas the abdomen is softer
- Bugscope Team so a spider has a hard exoskeleton except for its abdomen -- which is the rounded part that holds the spinnerets
- Bugscope Team birds can molt more than once a year though, not sure if spiders can?
- Bugscope Team i think the bigger spiders like tarantulas molt more than small ones, but I'm not an expert
- Bugscope Team oh wait, yes, i found a reference to spider molting online, they do molt quite often, some molt 4-7 times as juviniles!
- 11:58am
- Bugscope Team it all depends on the species, and also where they live
- Bugscope Team some spiders, when they fully mature, they won't molt anymore either
- Teacher Thank you all for your time! This was way cool.
- Bugscope Team thank you , you did great!
- Bugscope Team these are called 'plumose' setae because they are frilly, kind of like pine trees
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team See you next year!
- Bugscope Team thank you for a great session
- Bugscope Team don't forget, all the chat and images from today's session are online at: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-162
- Bugscope Team hi a, welcome to bugscope
- Guest thanks! very interesting
- Bugscope Team a! Alex gave you control if you would like to drive now.
- Bugscope Team a, you should see controls on the right side now
- Bugscope Team feel free to drive around real quick. any questions?
- Bugscope Team and you can drive directly or choose from among the presets on the right
- Bugscope Team spider face
- Bugscope Team fangs
- Guest what kind of spider is this?
- 12:03pm
- Guest I'm actually here because I'm working on an educational program for elementary students - we would love to make Bugscope part of it.
- Guest I was lucky to find a session today!
- Bugscope Team sometimes we have the opportunity to collect them in ethanol and critical point dry them so they don't shrivel much
- Bugscope Team where are you from, a?
- Guest New Brunswick, Canada
- Bugscope Team now you can focus
- Bugscope Team cool!]
- Guest Thanks
- Bugscope Team focus is either one way or the other -- up or down
- Bugscope Team so if it looks like it's getting worse go the other way
- Bugscope Team nice!
- 12:08pm
- Bugscope Team a you can choose from among any of the presets if you want to explore something else
- Guest Great, thanks
- Bugscope Team we like it best when the kids have their own computers or work two to a computer so they can ask us questions
- Bugscope Team but today's session went very well. it really depends on the school's resources and the age of the kids
- Bugscope Team this is a leafhopper
- Bugscope Team they produce tiny particles called brochosomes -- nanoparticles
- Bugscope Team but we did not find any brochosomes on this leafhopper
- Bugscope Team we did find some on the eye of the fly
- Bugscope Team this is the pumping apparatus in the middle of the head
- Bugscope Team that allows the leafhopper to suck fluids out of plants using its proboscis
- Guest Is a leafhopper a true bug?
- 12:13pm
- Bugscope Team yes Hemiptera
- Guest Great
- Bugscope Team we see a lot of hemipterans
- Bugscope Team this is cool, and we do not see these opften
- Bugscope Team often..
- Bugscope Team they have super long legs, for ants
- Bugscope Team the scape
- Bugscope Team and the little ball-and-socket joint
- 12:18pm
- Bugscope Team brb
- Guest ok
- Bugscope Team back, thanks
- Bugscope Team let us know when you have questions
- Guest Sure, this is fascinating.
- Bugscope Team flying aphid
- Bugscope Team do you teach biology?
- Guest Not exactly - involved in a project where I'm learning a lot about it - I have an arts background.
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Guest The project is called Whoo Club - one year focuses on arthropod body parts.
- Bugscope Team we should be able to help with that
- 12:23pm
- Guest What does your job involve?
- Bugscope Team we train people to run a suite full of microscopes
- Bugscope Team graduate students and postdocs, mostly, so they can use the instruments to do their own research, or that of their professors
- Guest What is the best method of collecting specimens - are killing jars or freezers better?
- Bugscope Team Bugscope is an outreach project we have done for almost 11 years
- Bugscope Team we think freezing is better
- Guest Interesting.
- Guest Ok, good, that sounds preferable.
- Bugscope Team because it seems like a killing jar makes the insects throw up, and messes up their mouthparts
- Bugscope Team yes since the end of 1998
- Bugscope Team but some critters are softbodied and are better if we get them in alcohol so we can critical point dry them
- Guest Which critters would those be?
- Bugscope Team tonight from 7 to 9 our time we connect with a horticulture class that has given us a lot of mites, aphids, etc.
- 12:29pm
- Bugscope Team dustmites, aphids, spiders are softvbodied; also aqueous critters like some larvae
- Guest Out of curiousity, what are the biggest things you could put under the microscope?
- Bugscope Team if we get mosquitos in ethanol and critical point dry them we often get to see mouthparts we would not normally see
- Bugscope Team the stage is 1.75 inches across, so it is best if things are small
- Bugscope Team a cicada is too big, like an aircraft carrier
- Bugscope Team I have put a pair of pliers in the 'scope, but you can only see the central part
- Guest Thank you so much Scot - this has been very interesting and helpful.
- Guest I really appreciate it.
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Be sure to send in an application.
- Guest Will do.
