Connected on 2010-03-26 11:00:00 from Orange, TX, US
- 8:46am
- Bugscope Team hello!
- 8:55am
- Bugscope Team It's almost 10 here, almost 9 there. So I'm quite early. Have a good session!
- 10:12am
- Bugscope Team hello lebouef, welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team we are setting up for a session in 43 minutes
- Guest coolbeans
- 10:17am
- 10:24am
- Bugscope Team Hey kids
- Bugscope Team or, um, alex
- Bugscope Team hi annie
- Bugscope Team we got annie! better than milk
- Bugscope Team Session starts in 33 minutes, right?
- Bugscope Team no scott today
- Bugscope Team yep
- Bugscope Team He is in NYC, right>
- Bugscope Team ?
- Bugscope Team yep
- Bugscope Team I will be around, back when the session starts. I will let your set up in peace
- Bugscope Team okay, thanks annie
- 10:29am
- Bugscope Team insect antenna
- 10:34am
- Bugscope Team hi Mrs. Harsh, welcome to bugscope
- Teacher Hi... we are using internet explorer.. the other was blocked... will this be a problem
- Bugscope Team IE will for fine, no prolem
- Teacher so what was the picture that had all the holes
Bugscope Team That was the leg of the centipede, we were wondering if they were poison pores, but we don't think they are
- 10:40am
- Teacher how long does it take for the download? I clicked on driving and it still says wait whil comman executes
Bugscope Team It shouldn't take very long. We are still setting up the session, so if you can hold off for a few minutes, then you can drive
- Teacher we have 12 laptops set up for the students to use
Bugscope Team that is just fine, having 12 kids login is perfect
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team Once you give you control, Mrs. Harsh, the delay from click to movement is no more than a second or two...
- Bugscope Team waterbug!
- Bugscope Team Once *we* give you control I mean...
- Bugscope Team Actually, a water boatman
- Bugscope Team These are the back legs that the bug uses to paddle through the water
- Bugscope Team okay, we are done with preset, i just unlocked the session
- Bugscope Team you should see controls on the right side
- Bugscope Team give it a try, any questions let us know
- Bugscope Team when using navigation, click to center is much easier to control than click to drive
- 10:46am
- Bugscope Team Mrs. Harsh, you must be away from keyboard? When you come back, go ahead and try controlling
- Bugscope Team good job mrs. harsh! click once to start moving, click again to stop
- Teacher ok that works.. do that each time?
- Bugscope Team well, click to CENTER is much easier to use
- Bugscope Team when you get lost, you can always click on one of the preset (lower right)
- Bugscope Team that'll take you to the preset
- 10:52am
- Bugscope Team can you try clicking on a preset?
- Bugscope Team ah, here are the students.
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope!
- Student what is that?
Bugscope Team this is a shell, with a small diatom on it
- Teacher ok ... we have 15 computers
Bugscope Team thats pretty cool
- Bugscope Team welcome students, you are looking at live images from an electron microscope that your teacher is controlling over the internet
- Teacher where would a diatom come from
Bugscope Team well the diatom is on a shell. The shell was probably from a stream, where diatoms flourish
- Bugscope Team please go ahead and ask us any questions you have. Annie is an entomologist, Cate is a microscopist, and I am a sysadmin
- Teacher we caught these in a wooded area.... could they be in a ditch?
Bugscope Team well diatoms are silica based and are like plankton- other aquatic things eat them. Maybe some stream runoff got into the ditch or whatever was living in the shell moved it? Normally you wouldn't see diatoms in a wooded area
- Student what is that
- Student what is that?
- Bugscope Team This is an Earwig
- Bugscope Team The head of an Earwig
- Student what does it do?
- Student what does it do
- Student what does it do
- Student what is that?
Bugscope Team these are pores that are found along the back legs of a centipede. Maybe they are breathing holes called spiracles. We aren't 100% sure
- 10:57am
- Student What is this?
- Student what are the wholes for?
- Student what are the holes
- Bugscope Team earwigs are nocturnal, and they often hide in small crevices
- Student what is this?
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team earwigs are plant eaters, but they will also eat other insects
- Student do they live in your ear?
Bugscope Team No, there is a legend that earwigs would crawl into the ears of sleeping people and eat their brains
- Student are those holes?
- Bugscope Team there are some earwig fossils from 208 million years ago, so it is a very OLD insect...
- Student what are the spike looking things?
Bugscope Team those are called setae (pronounced see-tee), they help it to sense its environment, like cat whiskers
- Bugscope Team But that is not true.
- Student i hope not
- Teacher do they eat live plant material or rotting logs? we found them in rotting logs
Bugscope Team They eat decomposing matter, like leaves, bark, etc. They live in dark, moist places. They also are significant pests of landscape plants and flowers.
- Bugscope Team hello
- Bugscope Team The legend of earwigs eating brains comes from the time when people slept on straw mattresses. The earwigs would hang out in the mattresses and people would find them in their beds with them. Earwigs like places like piles of leaves and straw.
- Student What is inside the holes?
Bugscope Team if they are spiracles, or breathing holes, they are connected to a trachea which runs along the entire body, supplying the body with oxygen
- Student whatis that?
- Student where did they come frome and do they have bones
Bugscope Team No insects or arthropods have bones. They have an exoskeleton made of tubes of chitin. Their muscles and organs are inside the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team spike are called setae
- Student what do they use them for
- Student what is that?
- Student whats that one huge spike?
- Student what are the hairs on it?
Bugscope Team those are setae, they help it feel its environment
- Student What part is this?
- Student what are the sencory organs
Bugscope Team Insects and arthropods can see with their eyes, they taste using setae on their mouths, antennae, and feet; the feel using different kinds of hairs (setae) that stick through their exoskeleton; the hear using still OTHER setae that detect vibrations.
- Student what part of the body are we looking at?
Bugscope Team i think we are looking at a segment of a leg, where it bends.
- Student is that its eye
- 11:02am
- Student is that a crads?
- Student are we still looking at an earwig?
- Student how big is the entire insect???
- Bugscope Team there are spikes to make sure it doesn't overextend its leg
- Student how does the hairs help the environment??
Bugscope Team the hairs help the insect feel and then there are special hairs on other insects that help them taste/smell, stick to walls, help them swim better
- Student Is that its led?
- Student what is this?
- Student leg
- Student how many legs do it have?
Bugscope Team it's missing quite a few that fell off, but it doesn't look to have a 100 legs
- Student how do the holes help it?
Bugscope Team I think that these holes excrete a nasty toxic substance when the centipede is disturbed. This helps to defend the centipede.
- Student How many does it have?
Bugscope Team Centipedes have one pair of legs per body segment. It looks like this centipede has 8 body segments (I can't see the end from here). So, 8x2 is 16. 16 legs.
- Student what is that next to it?
Bugscope Team looks like there is a broken off leg and maybe a part of a mosquito
- Student what are the holes for on is leg?
Bugscope Team I think those must serve a defensive function--emitting a toxic compound to deter predators.
- Student how big is the brain
Bugscope Team Pretty small. The brain of this centipede is probably not much bigger than the letter on in "who's online" at the top lef tof your screen
- Student what do they eat?
Bugscope Team Centipedes are all predators. They eat other arthropods. Well, really they will eat anything smaller than them. Some of the very large centipedes will eat baby mice!
- Bugscope Team the bubbly background is carbon tape, and the lighter patches are the silver paint
- 11:07am
- Bugscope Team the is the edge of the stage
- Student what kind of gold?
Bugscope Team heh, the real kind. :) it's gold-palladium though, so it's mixed, and it's also very think like a spray, cate can give you more detail
- Student whoes fallen
- Student how long is the lifespan of it?
Bugscope Team centipedes have a long lifespan of around 5 years
- Student what are the holes forr?
Bugscope Team The hole secrete a defensive compound.
- Student how do the hairs help them?
Bugscope Team they are sensory hairs, called setae, and they are like it's skin. without those setae they wouldn't be able to feel anything
- Student what is the head look like?
Bugscope Team the head is really flat, and it's very hard to tell it is a head, but is has a pair of antennae on it that look slightly different than the legs
- Student how does it age?
Bugscope Team Centipedes hatch from eggs and molt into larger and larger centipedes throughout its life. Spiders do a similar thing.
- Student what part of the body is this?
Bugscope Team This is the posterior end.
- Bugscope Team insects and bugs have a hard exoskeleton, which doesn't have any nerves in it, so those setae stick through the exoskeleton, to nerves underneath, that's how they feel things
- Student how old can they get
- Student how big does it get
Bugscope Team The largest centipedes can be 7-8 inches long. Most centipedes are not that long though.
- Teacher y does it hav those bumps on it
Bugscope Team the carbon tape? They probably had air bubbles in the processing
- 11:12am
- Student what kind of enviorment does it live in
- Bugscope Team click again to stop! yay, just got it
- Student what is that?
Bugscope Team there is a screw in the stage
- Student what is that
- Teacher what is this
Bugscope Team well, this is the edge of the sample, you can see one of the screws that holds the sample in place
- Bugscope Team if you want to move to a different insect mrs. harsh, try click on a preset
- Student is there a limited number of people who can log in
- Bugscope Team It is really easiest to use the click to drive command--MUCH easier to use!
Bugscope Team click to center...
- Student whats in the bumps
Bugscope Team those are bubbles in the sticky tape we put the bugs on
- Bugscope Team GAH
Bugscope Team no problemo :)
- Bugscope Team Click to center!!!
- Bugscope Team Beetle head
- Student annie, what is your job?
Bugscope Team I am a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California. I am an entomologist.
- Student what is your job?
- Student what is a entomoligist ?
Bugscope Team An entomologist is a scientist that studies insects (and other arthropods)
- Bugscope Team annie is our bug-ologist :)
- Student whats ur jub alex
Bugscope Team i am a systems adminitrator. i setup/fix and generally pamper computers...
- Bugscope Team I am a microscopist here and alex is our computer-ologist
- Student job*
- Bugscope Team We let people who study spiders and ticks and centipedes call themselves entomologists as well
- Bugscope Team most insects have these kind of claws: for eating, grabbing stuff, climbing stuff, etc
- Student do insects have a heart
Bugscope Team Yes, they have a series of hearts on the top of their bodies (under their wings). Insects have an open circulatory system, which means that all of their organs just hang out in the blood, because insects don't have veins or vessels.
- Student what is your job alex?
- 11:18am
- Bugscope Team Alex is the nicest and most helpful sysadmin every..
- Bugscope Team ever
- Student where are there blood
- Student where is their blood
Bugscope Team It is all sort of hanging out inside their bodies. It is the watery looking stuff that comes out when you step on an insect.
- Student were is there blood
- Student to alex what is your job?
Bugscope Team i'm an IT sysadmin, a computer geek. like geek squad except i work for the university of illinois
- Student why is the blood green
Bugscope Team Some insects have greenish blood and some have clear blood. It sort of depends on the insect. Green insects have green blood. Ladybugs have yellowish blood. Cockroaches have clearish blood.
- Bugscope Team thanks! i like people, that's why. i like people more than computers. ;)
- Student why is there blood green?
- Student what is the difference between an entomologist and an arthopologist?
Bugscope Team An arthropologist would study all arthropods--crabs, spiders, ticks, insects, millipedes. An entomologist focuses more on insects (although they also study centipedes and millipedes, spiders, ticks and mites.) Essentially, if you study anything that is an arthropod that is not a crustacean, you can be called an entomologist. It would be hard to study ALL the arthhropods
- Student how long is its lifespand
Bugscope Team that depends on the type of beetle it is. I'm not sure what type this is, but they can live form weeks to years
- Student that is cool, bout there different blood colors!!!!
- Teacher Some computers are getting kicked off and not being able to attend the live session
Bugscope Team Sorry about that, I just fixed it, try logging in again please
- Student do they have teeth
Bugscope Team they have a pair of jaws, but no teeth
- Student whats a bore beetle
Bugscope Team it's a type of beetle that bores into things like wood or plant matter
- Student can we control it
- 11:23am
- Student may i control?
- Student how do they eat???
Bugscope Team Many insects just take a bite and chew--just like we do. Some insects have sucking mouthparts--they have a completely liquid diet.
- Student are all beetles simaliar or are they all diferent
Bugscope Team They share some characteristics that group them all together. They have complete metamorphosis and the all have "shells", hardened front wings.
- Student do they have a brain
Bugscope Team Yes, they all have brains.
- Bugscope Team Some people would call them wood-boring beetles
- Bugscope Team anyone can control, mrs. harsh just let us know which students you want us to give control to
- Teacher can you give ryan control
- Student what is a ladybug palp?
Bugscope Team ladybugs have palps near their mouths, they are kind like tongues in that they can taste, or even smell, food. the palps also help direct food into the mouth as well
- Bugscope Team ryan now has control
- Bugscope Team ryan, give it a shot, try clicking on a preset or changing the magnification
- Student wat is the thing in the right corner
- Bugscope Team good work ryan! you are controlling a $700,000 electron microscope over the internet!
- Student do they have a nose or antennae
Bugscope Team they do have antennae, but not noses, insects smell with the setae (hairs), some setae are chemosensory and can smell things
- Student y do there legs look so hairy?
Bugscope Team Insects are covered with hairs, which we call setae. The setae on the leg help the insect to sense the surface it is walking on. Some of those short hairs also help the insect to clean other parts of its body.
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team this is a leg of the beetle, with lots of little hairs, or setae, sticking out
- Student what are the little bumps?
- Bugscope Team you are doing great ryan
- Student what are those rain drop shaped things on its legs
Bugscope Team Those were stout little setae that the beetle uses to clean itself (or to defend itself in some cases)
- 11:28am
- Student What is a Aphid Head
Bugscope Team aphids are pests that destroy plants.
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team this is the shell you sent us, and we found there was a centipede crawling out of it
- Student what is that
- Student is it its shell?
Bugscope Team No this is the shell of a snail. The centipede was either eating the snail or living in its shell
- Student why do they look
- Teacher could you let shell&brit drive
Bugscope Team done
- Student What is that long thing coming out of the shell?
Bugscope Team That is a centipede
- Student what is the stuff in the background
Bugscope Team we put the bugs on sticky tape so they stay still, that tape has some bumps in it
- Student what is that
- Student what is this
- Bugscope Team This looks like a little bark beetle
- Bugscope Team this is a bug head!!! the head of a wood-bore beetle
- Bugscope Team or a bark beetle, annie knows better
- Student what are those paddle things coming out of it
Bugscope Team Those are the antennae
- Bugscope Team check out the compound eye on the right side
- Student where is the mouth
- Bugscope Team He was probably living in the rotten log--decomposing the wood.
- Student what kind of bug is this ?
Bugscope Team This is something that looks like a bark beetle to me. It is a wood-boring beetle, like Alex said.
- Student what are those paddle shaped things?
- Bugscope Team the compound eye is made up of many individual facets called ommatidia, each one with a lens in it
- Teacher are those his eyes? what are the things under them
Bugscope Team the only eye we can see here is the compound eye on the right, it's bumpy
- 11:33am
- Student why are they so hairy?
Bugscope Team those hairs are setae, they act like skin: to feel things. so the more hairs the better they feel
- Student does a bore beetle have eyes
Bugscope Team yes they have compound eyes found on either side of its head
- Student does the hair on his face help it to eat
Bugscope Team yes, you are getting it! some of the hairs near the mouth might help it taste or smell it's food
- Student this that a moth?
Bugscope Team Nope it is a beetle "chest"--called the prothorax
- Bugscope Team Now, of course, there are hundred and thousands of species of small brown beetles that live in rotten log, so it may not technically be a true bark beetle.
- Student wat does it eat?
Bugscope Team It bores in wood. Many of these kinds of beetles introduce a fungus that breaks down the wood. The beetles actually feed on the fungus.
- Student what are we lokking at now?
Bugscope Team This is a corixid water bug.
- Student What are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Team edge of the world!!
- Teacher can you let caitlin
Bugscope Team done. caitlin has control now
- Bugscope Team oops, drove off the edge a little bit there :)
- Student is that a labbybug
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team It is the palp of a ladybug
- 11:38am
- Bugscope Team This is now the ladybug
- Student wats that
- Student what part is this?
Bugscope Team this is inside the ladybug palp. These are kind of like tastebuds
- Student is that the little black bugs we see in ponds like floating water??
Bugscope Team This is not. This is just a plain-ol' ladybug
- Student what are those spiney things
- Student what body part are we looking at/?
Bugscope Team It is part of the mouth
- Student what is the spikey things for
Bugscope Team those are probably sensory things on the palp, the things that smell/taste food
- Bugscope Team this is a closeup of a ladybug palp, it helps it taste/smell food and direct food into it's mouth
- Student can a ludybug have kids?
Bugscope Team if they didn't then there wouldn't be any more ladybugs in the world
- Student wats that
- Bugscope Team COOL! this is a compound eye, the bumps are called ommatidia, they each have an eye lens in them
- Teacher can you let twitch drive
Bugscope Team got it
- Bugscope Team Female ladybugs lay eggs, just like a chicken ;)
- Student what is that
- Student is that a butterfly
Bugscope Team This is the "foot" of a butterfly
- Student this there head?
- Student are those scales
Bugscope Team right on smurf, you got it, those are scales underneath
- Student Annie, do you like doing this?
Bugscope Team Yes, Bugscope makes me think creatively about insects. I enjoy explaining entomology to students.
- 11:43am
- Student Alex,Is your job fun?
Bugscope Team affirmative B-)
- Student what is your research, Alex?
Bugscope Team computers
- Student wats that
- Student is that the outer scales
- Bugscope Team okay, nugget has control now
- Student what is your research,Annie
- Student this is a wing wrig?
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team well, this is a scale on a wing, yes
- Student Bye we have to go(:
- Bugscope Team you all did GREAT!
- Student Thank you soo much (:
- Student we are going to lunch yeb
- Student i had fun. thanks for your answers. most of us are going to lunch. bye
- Bugscope Team mrs. harsh, all the chat and images from this session are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu
- Student thanks for the answers guys! :)
- Student Byee we Have Too Go Too Lunch (:
- Bugscope Team Thank you all!
- Bugscope Team thank you for using bugscope. we hope you all had fun
- Teacher can you let smurf dridr
- Bugscope Team ack, the correct webpage is: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-014
- Bugscope Team smurf has control now
- Student alex is your jod cool?
Bugscope Team totally. cool as cool can be
- Student wat dem spaces for
Bugscope Team well, to keep the scale light and airy, those holes help to do that
- Bugscope Team here's more about the bugscope staff: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/who_are_we
- 11:48am
- Bugscope Team scales are cool. They have pigment granules that give them color along with the actual structure of the scales
- Student do they have a tummy
Bugscope Team They have a digestive system, which is fairly similar to ours. It is a long tube that starts at the mouth and ends at the other end.
- Student alex are you a bug docter?
Bugscope Team heh, no, i'm a computer doctor. i work with bugscope so that we have a techie around in case of any computer problems. but i've learned some many cool things about bugs, makes the job very very cool
- Student how small is salt
Bugscope Team check out the scale bar in the lower left of the image, one um = one micron = one millionth of a meter
- Teacher can julia drive
- Bugscope Team so a salt crystal like this one is about 150 microns
- Student do you have a preset of a tick
Bugscope Team I don't think we have a tick today
Bugscope Team no we don't have any ticks today. sorry
- Student how many xs this magnified
Bugscope Team click on the scale bar, it'll tell you
- Student what is a junebug
Bugscope Team A junebug is a type of scarab beetle. They typically emerge in large numbers at the beginning of June. They are very buzzy and very attracted to porch lights. They all feed on plant roots.
- Student ok
- Student what is a junebug?
- Bugscope Team to find out the mag, click on the scale bar in the lower left of the image, cool info will show up on top
- Bugscope Team in texas you must see a wide array of insects we dont see in illinois
Bugscope Team West and south Texas are famous for their insects
- Bugscope Team the scope can magnify up to 600,000x, but for bugs we don't go much past 40,000x
- Student cool
- Bugscope Team There are insects there that are not present any other place in the US.
- Bugscope Team we can see things as small as 1.2 nanometers
- 11:53am
- Bugscope Team A friend of mine wrote a paper all about the longhorned beetles of west Texas.
- Bugscope Team cate, a nanometer is one billionth of a meter, right?
Bugscope Team yep
- Bugscope Team these are special setae that help the insect walk on walls
- Student what is ladybug tenent do?
Bugscope Team the tenent setae help the ladybug to climb walls. you know how they can climb walls upside down? that's the tenent setae helping them do that
- Student what is a butterfly lifespand
Bugscope Team Most insects live a year from the time that they are a leg until they die as adults. During the cold months, the butterfly with hibernate.
- Student do you have a tick bug?
Bugscope Team we dont have any ticks today
- Teacher do insect have all the setae because they don't have good sight? these were found in logs so do they need them to get around in the dard
Bugscope Team yes, i've never seen an insect without setae. setae are used for sight, but also feeling, tasting, temperature, smelling, etc.
- Student do you have flys?
Bugscope Team there was a fruit fly on here for today, but it blew off when I was coating it with the metal
- Bugscope Team and these setae (tenent setae) help to climb. setae are way cool.
- Bugscope Team Insects that live in dark places like logs or under the soil often have reduced eyes (some subterranean ants have NO eyes). Because it is so dark, they rely on their sense of smell and taste to find their ways around.
- 11:59am
- Student i got to to lunch bye guys
- Bugscope Team And they smell and taste with those setae.
- Teacher well it is lunch time... the kids have left.... thanks for a great time
- Bugscope Team see you julia, good work
- Bugscope Team thanks mrs. harsh, you did great
- Bugscope Team The setae also protect the insect from the dirt and rocks--which could damage the cuticle and kill the insect.
- Bugscope Team remember your member page, you can access it anytime, all the chat and images are saved there
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-014
- Teacher I would love to go and read all the questions now that I am not instructing them
- Bugscope Team nice session. good work everyone
