Connected on 2010-05-25 10:30:00 from Ponder, TX, US
- 9:25am
- Bugscope Team pumping down...
- 9:38am
- 9:45am
- Bugscope Team now we're making the presets for today's session
- 9:51am
- Bugscope Team Some serious eyelashes there
- 9:56am
- Bugscope Team On the librarian?
- Bugscope Team or the flea?
- Bugscope Team The beetle I think, it was a while ago
- 10:02am
- 10:08am
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team We are still working on the presets, almost done.
- Bugscope Team Mr Ruiz we are done and you may have control as soon as you wish.
- 10:18am
- Teacher Good morning guys
- Bugscope Team Morning!
- Bugscope Team Good Morning!
- Bugscope Team let us know if you have any questions, any trouble.
- Bugscope Team We put the critters you sent on the stub and then added a few.
- Teacher Ok, great. I was just looking at those. Cool! Thanks!
- Bugscope Team you can select from among the presets just by clicking]
- Bugscope Team the 'scope will move to that position
- Bugscope Team and you can change mag, go out of focus, run off of the stage...
- Bugscope Team you have worked with us before...
- Bugscope Team we took click to drive off and have only click to center now
- 10:23am
- Teacher sounds good
- Bugscope Team the forearm segments are called tarsi, or tarsomeres
- Bugscope Team the bristles we see -- the ridged setae, are likely mechanosensory
- Bugscope Team like a cat's or rat's whiskers
- Bugscope Team now we see the head, of course, and the various components of the antennae, the compound eyes, and the sponging mouthparts
- Bugscope Team the mouthparts are soft, and when they dry after the fruit fly dies, they shrivel up a bit
- Bugscope Team you can see the individual facets of the compound eye here, and you can see that they have tiny mechanosensory setae in between them
- 10:29am
- Teacher Does the fruit fly see out of each eye? Since it is a compound eye?
- Bugscope Team we don't always agree about what it sees; I believe it sees multiple images and assembles them into a coherent whole image
- Bugscope Team some flying insects also have three ocelli --- simple eyes -- on the top of their heads
- Bugscope Team you can see the ocelli here, like little spider eyes on top of the head
- Bugscope Team the great majority of the fruit fly's brain is devoted to visual processing
- Teacher Very cool
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes you would have much better peripheral vision, and you would be more sensitive to changes in the visual field -- to motion, for example
- Bugscope Team which might make you harder to catch
- Bugscope Team this is an aphid, and we can see its proboscis running down the middle of its body
- 10:35am
- Bugscope Team aphids are plant pests, and they use their probosces to pierce leaves, for example, and suck out the plant juices
- Bugscope Team sometimes aphids are 'farmed' by ants, who protect them and are rewarded by sweet nectar that comes from the cornicles, which look like little dual exhausts coming out of the top back side of the abdomen.
- Teacher wow, never knew that
- Bugscope Team aphids have soft bodies, unlike most insects, which have harder, more rigid exoskeletons
- Bugscope Team some aphids, however, do not produce nectar from the cornicles. they produce a kind of glue that immobilizes ants that pester them. like a hot met glue gun
- Bugscope Team hot melt glue gun...
- Bugscope Team the background that sometimes looks bubbly is carbon tape that I used to stick the insects on
- 10:40am
- Bugscope Team here is a male mosquito
- Bugscope Team they have frilly antennae compared to the females
- Bugscope Team when we have an aphid that looks fairly intact, like this, it's because we processed it through an ascending ethanol series, to 100%, and then critical point dried it to prevent it from shriveling.
- Bugscope Team (like the aphid way back when I started typing..., since as Cate says, this is a male mosquito)
- Bugscope Team male mosquitoes do not suck blood
- Teacher Interesting
- Bugscope Team they often live on nectar, although I think some, like some other adult insects, especially males, do not eat at all
- Bugscope Team some male adult insects do not have mouthparts
- Bugscope Team some may live in the adult form for only a few hours
- Teacher My class wants to know why the males do not eat
Bugscope Team they are only needed to fertilize the females. That is their only goal in life. The only reason females eat is because they need the food to lay their eggs
- Bugscope Team In the cases where they don't have mouthparts, it's usually because they only live long enough to mate
- 10:46am
- Bugscope Team the female mosquitoes, most of them (there are some that do not suck blood), need to have a blood meal, as Cate says, in order to successfully lay their eggs
- Teacher Thanks
- Bugscope Team Good morning, Sherri!
- Bugscope Team this is a feature we have seen before on other true bugs, like on stinkbugs, and we are not sure what it does
- Guest Good morning. I'm just visiting. Our group is scheduled in August and I want to see a program live.
- Bugscope Team stinkbugs do not like the stink that they themselves make, and they are said to have absorbent areas on their cuticle that suck up the bad smell. so I'd been thinking that was what this is
- Teacher Good morning Sherri.
- Bugscope Team Hi Joni!
- Bugscope Team this is cool!
- Bugscope Team we don't always get such a good view of the tip of the proboscis of a true bug
- 10:51am
- Bugscope Team the setae we see a little further back are likely chemosensory -- they allow the insect to taste what it is preparing to suck up
- Bugscope Team this is a water strider you sent us, Mr Ruiz, and it is in very good shape, looks so nice
- Teacher Great
- Bugscope Team you can see the compound eyes, and the other end of the proboscis, and parts of the forelimbs
- Bugscope Team you thought this might be a mosquito when you sent it to us, but look at the nice surprise
- Bugscope Team Cate put one of our mosquitoes on the stage today as well.
- Teacher Good to know that it is actually a water strider
- 10:57am
- Bugscope Team so they use those piercing mouthparts to feed on other insects
- Bugscope Team and speaking of predators...
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the ladybug, and it is quite busy-looking
- Bugscope Team they have four palps that help them taste and manipulate their food, and they have two mandibles, of which we can see one fairly well
- Teacher I think I've seen this in a movie before. Men in Black? lo
- Bugscope Team yes!
- Bugscope Team haha
- Bugscope Team the things that resemble vacuum cleaner nozzles are the larger of the two sets of palps
- Bugscope Team you can also see the eyes, barely, and the forelimbs, and the bases of the antennae
- Teacher The class wanted to know why the ladybug has the well know red with black spots?
Bugscope Team the bright colors like reds, yellows, or oranges are used as a warning to others. So the spots are a warning to others. Ladybugs dont taste good or smell good to other insects.
- 11:02am
- Teacher And why are they called ladybugs? Aren't their boybugs?
Bugscope Team The name "ladybird" originated in the Middle Ages when the insects were known as the "beetle of Our Lady". They were named after The Virgin Mary, who in early religious paintings was often shown wearing a red cloak.
- Teacher err there..
- Bugscope Team they are sometimes called ladybirds, as well
- Bugscope Team ladybugs are also called lady beetles and ladybirds
- Bugscope Team According to one source, Lady Bugs got their name from the Virgin Mary when European farmers in the Middle Ages prayed for relief from the pests eating their crops and then the ladybugs came and ate the pests
- Teacher Thanks!
- Bugscope Team and it is hard to tell, in many insects, the boys from the girls
- Teacher What is a palp?
Bugscope Team they are like little legs by the mouth that are used to manipulate and taste food
- Bugscope Team these are similar to the tastebuds you have on your tongue
- Bugscope Team leading to "The Beetles of Our Lady", and then just ladybug
- Bugscope Team a palp is an extra appendage that assists with feeding, usually coming in pairs
- Bugscope Team this is the very tip of one of the palps, so from being so close you cannot tell that it looks much like a tiny arm or leg
- 11:07am
- Bugscope Team these are tenent setae, used to help the insect stick to walls
- Bugscope Team do you recognize this?
- Teacher Yes
- Bugscope Team it's not an insect, but a crustacean
- Bugscope Team like a crab
- Bugscope Team they have gills, but we are not sure what they look like
- Teacher nest
- Teacher neat
- Bugscope Team insects always have six legs, and they always have three major body parts: the head, the thorax, and the abdomen
- 11:13am
- Bugscope Team rolypolies have quite a few extra legs, for starters, and they have more body parts
- Bugscope Team they are called 'isopods' because their legs all look the same. like an isosceles triangle in which all the sides are the same length and all of the angles are the same.
- Bugscope Team you can see the flea's eyespot here, and its mouthparts]
- Bugscope Team here is a little flea from a dog
- Bugscope Team it is very flat, and it has large and powerful back legs, like a jackrabbit
- Bugscope Team this is the large beetle you sent
- Bugscope Team we were surprised at its 'hairiness' -- all of the sensory setae on and around its head
- 11:18am
- Bugscope Team you can see its antennae quite well. the clubbed ends are lamellated -- they are stacked like a submarine sandwich
- Teacher It looked kind of hairy which is why I decided to send it. However, I didn't see ALL of the setae.
- Bugscope Team claw!
- Teacher The Claw!
- Bugscope Team this preset had moved since we saved it
- Bugscope Team so we just now repositioned the sample in the microscope
- Bugscope Team these are like tiny tastebuds at the tip of the palp
- 11:24am
- Bugscope Team lots of palps today!
- Bugscope Team so cute and lovely..
- Bugscope Team this is what a ladybug looks like when it is younger, before it becomes an adult
- Bugscope Team and this is a weevil!
- Bugscope Team we are looking right at the jaws
- Bugscope Team the mandibles
- Bugscope Team weevils are sometimes called 'snout beetles,'
- Bugscope Team Reminds me of James Bond
- Bugscope Team huh like Sean Connery?
- Bugscope Team The mandibles looked like Jaws' mouth
- Bugscope Team Richard Kiel
- Bugscope Team we are looking at mold spores...
- 11:29am
- Teacher I described to my class what mold spores were.
- Bugscope Team this is a closeup view of a single scale from the wing of a moth
- Teacher cool
- Bugscope Team a scale is analogous to a feather
- Bugscope Team they are what make a butterfly or moth's wings feel so soft
- Bugscope Team if your body was covered with scales and you flew into a spiderweb -- just sayin' -- you might be able to slip out by leaving the powdery scales caught in the web while you got away
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the moth!
- 11:34am
- Bugscope Team see its proboscis, all coiled up?
- Bugscope Team and we can see its palps as well as, in the background, its antennae
- Teacher Yes, guess this one didn't need to suck any bug juice up. :)
Bugscope Team it's not going to pierce any other critters with its proboscis]
- Bugscope Team plus of course its compound eyes
- Bugscope Team when a moth or butterfly wants to extend its proboscis, it forces hemolymph -- the fluid inside of its body -- into the proboscis and makes it roll out like one of those party favors at New Years'
- Teacher Well, ScotJ, cate, Chaos, thank you for preparing the slides today for my class. We really learned alot and enjoyed looking at the bugs and crustaceans. A really positive experience .
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team you're welcome! you can visit your member page at any time to look over the images captured form today's session
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-004/
- Teacher Thanks!
- Guest Thank you all for letting me sit in. We are excited about our upcoming session!
- Bugscope Team Sherri if you would like to drive let us know.
- Bugscope Team we just gave you control
- Teacher Glad you enjoyed it Sherri
- 11:39am
- Teacher Bye guys!
- Guest Oh, okay!
- Bugscope Team Sherri you should see more things on your web page than previously...
- Bugscope Team and we should say that all Bugscope sessions are different.
- Guest Thank you so much!
- Bugscope Team If you have a roomful of computers -- like a computer lab -- you can have your students log in and communicate with us directly.
- Bugscope Team we can even confer control of the microscope to students, if you wish
- Bugscope Team one at a time, of course
- Bugscope Team this is the coiled-up proboscis, and to the left is one of the palps, with some of the scales missing
- Bugscope Team Sherri you can also select from any of the presets on the right side of the chat box. Clicking on one of those will take you to that place on the stub.
