Connected on 2010-03-18 14:00:00 from Park Ridge, IL, US
- 1:33pm
- Bugscope Team hi mrs schaab
- 1:45pm
- 1:51pm
- Teacher Hi! I'm just starting to set up! :)
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team Mrs S if you refresh the text below will go away
- 1:57pm
- Teacher We are almost ready... the students will be logging on shortly.
- Bugscope Team Awesome!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- 2:02pm
- Bugscope Team let us know when you have questions!
- Bugscope Team this is a closeup image of a scale from a moth or mosquito, probably
- Bugscope Team or a butterfly -- but it is on an earwig
- Student hi my name is Katlynne and my partners name is marypat
- Student Hi this is syd and grant
- Bugscope Team Welcome you all!
- Student Hello Scot and Kate. We are Zaid and Jenna!
- Student Hi! I'm Julia! And I'm Deiter
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Student Hi! this is Katie and Kevin
- Student hello this is danny and greg
- Bugscope Team hello everyone
- Bugscope Team hi you guys!
- Student hi I am mark, I'm Emily, and I'm Katie
- Student What are we looking at above?
Bugscope Team this is a scale from a butterfly or moth
- Student hello! our names r elizabeth and mark
- Student hi from catie_ Jon we are excited to discuss
- Student hi this is timothy and joey
- Student what are we looking at right now
- Bugscope Team but the scale is on an eawig
- Bugscope Team when you rub the wing of a butterfly and it feels silky and powder comes off -- this is the powder
- Student What is an earwig?
- Student what are the holes between the lines?
Bugscope Team those are empty spaces in the lattice that makes up the scale, which is kind of like a feather
- Bugscope Team they are plant pests, usually
- Bugscope Team they have little pinchers on them
- 2:07pm
- Student How big are the wings?
Bugscope Team the wings of a large butterfly could cover the whole stub that is in the microscope now -- it is 1.75 inches in diameter
- Bugscope Team now you can see more scales
- Student If all the scales were put together would they look like a different color?
Bugscope Team parts of them would be different colors, and they might have the normal pigmented color as well as structural colors, which come from the way the shape of the scale reflects like
- Bugscope Team these are just tiny pieces of the wing
- Student wow
- Teacher Can you give me control of the microscope so that I can change what we are looking at please?
- Bugscope Team there you go
- Student hi annie
- Student hello Annie and Scot
- Student hi annie
- Student hello
- Student hi
- Student Hi Annie
- Student hi annie!
- Student hi Annie and Scot
- Bugscope Team light
- Student hi annie
- Bugscope Team Hi Timothy_Joey, Katie_kevin, Sydney_Grant....ahhh too many! Hello everyone!
- Student Hello this is zaid and jenna.
- Bugscope Team Mrs S can you drive now?
- Bugscope Team cool
- Student what are they on a tree or a stick or something else
Bugscope Team this is one of the pincers of a male earwig
- Student o
- Teacher Yes I can! :)
- Bugscope Team my fault I forgot to unlock the session
- Bugscope Team Moth and butterfly scales are often found on other insects. They are like dust--they are everywhere
- Student how big can an earwig get?
Bugscope Team in the Tropics they might get to be a couple of inches, but here they are smaller, more like a half inch or so
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of the earwig
- 2:13pm
- Student why is an earwig called an earwig do they go inside your ear
Bugscope Team There is an old legend that earwigs would crawl into the ears of sleeping people and eat their brains.
- Student why is the eye scaly-ish?
Bugscope Team the eye has lots of different facets -- sort of like a diamond has facets -- that are called ommatidia. each ommatidium is a lens
- Student What colors can earwigs see?
Bugscope Team Earwigs are nocturnal, so they probably can't see very well at all. They probably only see in black and gray.
- Student if it gets dust in its eye how dose it get it out
- Student what is coming of of the eye
- Student that is kind of scary
Bugscope Team it is! insects can be creepy enough without looking at them up close
- Student how well can earwigs see?
Bugscope Team Not very well, insects that are active at night, often have very poor vision.
- Student why does it look like a spider
Bugscope Team because its legs are projecting out in front of its head, and/or some of the palps, which spiders have as well
- Student y does it look like a spider
- Student it kind of looks like a spider!
- Student now it lloooks like a snake scale
- Student what do the bumps on the eyes do?
Bugscope Team those are the individual ommatidia of a compound eye. Each one is thought to acquire an individual image
- Student how many ommatidium do each earwig have?
Bugscope Team probably a few hundred per eye
- Student its so bumpy
- Student what are the hairs on the earwigs eye
Bugscope Team the hairs are called 'setae,' and they are likely touch or wind sensors
- Student is there hair on that eye?
- Student are the fly and earwig related somehow because their eyes look alike
Bugscope Team they are both insects but they are not closely related
- Student do earwigs have eyelash things like we do to protect our eyes??
Bugscope Team No, they rely on the strength of their exoskeleton to protect their eyes from damage. they clean their eyes with their feet if they get dirty.
- Bugscope Team The reason that people thought that earwigs crawled into the ear of people, was that people used to sleep on straw mattresses. Earwigs like damp, dark places, like mounds of straw. The earwigs would crawl out of the straw at night, and that is when people would find them...and for some reason, it was decided from that observation that earwigs liked to crawl into ears.
- Student why does it look like it has bumps
Bugscope Team the bumps are the bulbous shapes of the individual ommatidia
- Student what are those platform looking things under the piece of hair
Bugscope Team those are the facets of the compound eye
- 2:18pm
- Student how many eyes do an earwig have?
Bugscope Team they have 2 compound eyes
- Student is the image a leg
- Student what part of the eye is it
- Student do earwigs have bones?
Bugscope Team No. Earwigs and other insects have an exoskeleton. Their bodies are supported by strong tubes of chitin--which makes up the exoskeleton. Inside the tubes of chitin are the muscles and organs. In this way, insects are exactly opposite of humans. We have our skeleton on the inside and our organs on the outside
- Student do earwigs have nails?
Bugscope Team they have claws on each of their legs. Their exoskeleton, along with other insects, are made of chitin- the same stuff our fingernails are made of.
- Student does the hair on its leg help it stick to surfaces
- Student why does it have such long hair so spaced apart?
- Student Why does it look like a bunch of pipes
- Student what is the real color of an earwig?
Bugscope Team usually they are brown, and sometimes they are translucent brown -- you can see into them
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes like this you would have better peripheral vision, and you would also be able register motion more quickly
- Student why is it so dirty how does it clean itself?
Bugscope Team they live in dirt, often, near the bases of plants
- Student Does the leg of a ear wig have dirt on it's leg
- Student how many legs do an earwig have?
Bugscope Team they have 6
Bugscope Team sometimes they may have less if we accidentally knock them off ourselves
- Student oh thx scot
- Student ohhh o.k.
- Student where do earwigs come from?
Bugscope Team I believe there are earwig species on every continent except Antarctica
- Student how big is a normal i of an earwig
Bugscope Team maybe a few millimeters in diameter
- Student why do roly polys roll up in a ball
Bugscope Team That is how they protect themselves.
- Student why are roly polys round
Bugscope Team they are round when they ball up because it makes them difficult to grasp that way
- 2:23pm
- Student how does their shell help them
Bugscope Team It protects them from predators.
- Student how many legs do a rolly polly have?
Bugscope Team I think they have 26. (?)
- Bugscope Team you can see the compound eyes of this rolypoly right in the corner of that fore-portion of the head
- Student why are roly polys called roly polys?
Bugscope Team Because they roll into a ball. In some places they are called sowbugs or wood lice. However, they are neither bugs nor lice.
- Student what does it eat?
Bugscope Team They eat decomposing stuff--mold from leaves and wood.
- Student how long has this rolly polly been dead
- Student when ever u touch a rolly polly why does it roll up into a ball?
- Student if it was acually this big, would they eat us or stick to eating plants
Bugscope Team They probably would stick to being decomposers, although it is tough to say.
- Student do rolly polly's have claws?
Bugscope Team they have single claws -- not double claws like may insects do. and the claws are alike, so they are called 'isopods,' which means that all the feet ('pods') are the same ('iso').
- Student what is the hair on the leg called
Bugscope Team The hairs are called setae
- Student what r they really called
- Student how big are rolly polly in real life?
- Student How many sections of the leg do they have in one leg
- Student how many bones do rolly polly's have?
Bugscope Team 0 bones. Roly polies have exoskeletons, just like insects.
- Student how big can a roly poly grow up to be
- Student Why do rolly polys grow hair on their legs?
Bugscope Team It helps them to sense the environment. The hairs have nerves that connect with the nervous system. It lets the roly poly know what is happening through its tough shell (which is the exoskeleton)
- Student how many legs do roly polys have?
Bugscope Team I think it depends on the species and the age of the roly poly....they have more than 6, for sure.
- Student are rolly pollyies harmless????????
Bugscope Team Yes. Unless you are a fungus.
- Student what is it like in a roly poly shell
Bugscope Team they must feel protected
- Student what insects are rolly pollys realted to
Bugscope Team roly polies are actually related to crabs and lobsters -- they are crustaceans
- Student do rolly polly's have gills?
Bugscope Team Yes!
- Student if roly polys didnt have shells wat would they do for defence
Bugscope Team Well, it is likely that if they didn't evolve shells, they would have evolved something else--perhaps they would run very fast, or excrete a nasty compound to deter predators from eating them.
- 2:28pm
- Student what do rolly pollies eat?
Bugscope Team They eat mold and decomposing plant matter.
- Student Are the little bumps on the leg scales
Bugscope Team techically they are not scales, but it is likely they strengthen the armor of the roly poly because of their shape
- Student are rolly polly's insect's?
Bugscope Team nope- they have too many legs
- Student What are the little spiky things on their legs?
- Student how long does a rolly polly live?
Bugscope Team It depends on the place where they live. Most arthropods live about 3 months-1 year.
- Student What would it do to you if you were a fungus
Bugscope Team It would eat your body parts!!!!
- Student what do they eat and what are their predtors?
Bugscope Team They eat decomposing vegetation and mold (fungus). Their predators are spiders, predaceous beetles, small mammals like mice, and probably centipedes.
- Student what are the stringy things on the insect
- Student what are those hairy things?
- Student can mosquitos here noise
Bugscope Team yes they can hear noise -- they can hear each other
- Bugscope Team oops 'technically'
- Student what are the rolly pollies predtors?
- Student wheres ther face
- Student what are those holes called and what do they do?
- Student why does tht look like a jelly fish but the inside of a jellyfish
Bugscope Team that is a good observation! but I'm not sure we can answer it easily
- Student How many little hairs grow on the branches?
- Student how small is the anntena in real life?
Bugscope Team just a few mm long
- Student What is the hair coming out of?
Bugscope Team it's just that- hair, but on insects they are called setae (pronounced see-tee)
- Student how long are the hair's?
- Bugscope Team we can see that those hairs (microsetae) are maybe 10 to 15 micrometers long
- Student what does the branch do
- Student how many anntena do misqutoes have?
Bugscope Team Two antennae
- Student what does the mosquito do with the blood it drinks
Bugscope Team Only the female drinks blood. She excretes the liquid part of the blood and uses the cellular components to create her eggs.
- Student how thick are the hairs on this bug?
- Bugscope Team a bacterium -- like E coli -- is about 2 micrometers long
- Bugscope Team this is cool!
- 2:34pm
- Student what does it feel like
- Student it looks like a spine now rite
- Student What is the difference between a antenna and the branch of an antenna
Bugscope Team branch is only a small part of the main antenna
- Student what are those stringy things?
Bugscope Team those are the fronds of the antenna
- Student why are there so many holes?
- Bugscope Team the males have fancy -- ornate -- antennae
- Student is it related to a cenipied
Bugscope Team VVeeeerrryyy distantly. They are both arthropods, but the similarities end there. They are in the same phylum.
- Bugscope Team wow looks like there is a fly of some sort to the north
- Teacher Can you please give the controls to megan_chris?
- Student if the mosquito loses its tip to drink blood what will happen to it
Bugscope Team It would probably die; mosquitoes are not very robust insects. If it lost too much of its head, it would also lose its brain. Then it would be completely sunk.
- Student Are the long things coming out legs?
Bugscope Team yes!
- Student will it die
Bugscope Team eventually -- they do not live very long
- Student How many legs do they have?
Bugscope Team six legs
- Student is that a head?
Bugscope Team yes!
- Student why do they look so weird?
- Student looks like its eating somthing because somehting is coimng out of its mouth
- Student Why does the mosquito look like it's bending over?
Bugscope Team they've got a "hunchback" so they are kind of stuck that way. Not sure why they have a hunchback though
- 2:39pm
- Student why dot he eyes look like donuts?
Bugscope Team ooh, the donuts are the bases of the antennae--the antennae are missing from this specimen.
- Student What is the mosquito holding in it's mouth?
Bugscope Team That IS its mouth!!!
- Student are those the eyes?
- Student f the mosquito does not find prey to drink blood for too long what will happen to it
Bugscope Team They will eventually die. They also consume nectar from flowers, but without blood the female mosquito cannot lay eggs.
- Student what are we looking at?
Bugscope Team we were looking into sort of empty space, briefly
- Student the eyes are cool!
Bugscope Team they kind of wrap around the head, don't they?
- Student what are those dotty thing's?
Bugscope Team Those are the individual facets of the compound eye
- Student are the transparent things the wings?
Bugscope Team We cannot see the wings now.
- Student How many scales does the mosquito have?
Bugscope Team Waaay too many to count. They have scales all over their bodies
- Student whats this pic of now is it stil a miscito
Bugscope Team this is a mosquito that has lost its antennae
- Student what r the little dots
Bugscope Team the small dots are the individual ommatidia -- the facets of the compound eye
- Student it looks like the scales are broken are they?
Bugscope Team many have fallen off
- Student Are those scales around the eye?
Bugscope Team there are scales around the eye but it is hard to see them now
- Student if mosquito didnt have those scales what would happen
Bugscope Team They can lose almost all of the scale and still be OK. The scales make the mosquito slippery, which makes it slightly more difficult for predators to catch them.
- Teacher Can you please give controls to zaid_jenna?
- Student why do the scails look like a bee hive
Bugscope Team those are the eye facets, and that shape is a good for packing round things into a spherical space so you see it a lot in nature
- Student ok
- Student are the scales on the mosquito's head smooth or rough?
Bugscope Team It would feel very smooth
- 2:44pm
- Student if the mosquito didnt have any hairs on its body would they have a harder time sticking on surfaces
Bugscope Team if you had scales like this and you flew into a spider web, accidentally, you might be able to leave the scales stuck to web and get out without the spider biting you
- Student what are those hairs for?
Bugscope Team The setae help the insect to sense its environment through its exoskeleton. The hairs connect to nerves, which sends information to the mosquito's brain
- Student By the way the scales look they look floppy, Are they floppy or are they hard?
Bugscope Team they are stiff, but flexible
- Bugscope Team the scales are kind of like feathers
- Student what color are the scales normally
Bugscope Team they are grey or brown, sometimes black or even white or yellow
- Student does debris ever fly in between the scales
Bugscope Team yup, all the time!
- Student how many scales do they have
Bugscope Team Too many to count!
- Student how long r the scalls
- Student how long are the scales
Bugscope Team looks like they are about 50 to 60 micrometers long -- a micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter
- Student if the mosquito didnt have wings what would happen
Bugscope Team It would definitely die, either from starvation or from bleeding to death or drying out.
- Student wow does that depend on
- Student what type
- Student if the scales were REALLY big, would you be able to notice it without having to put it under a microscope?
Bugscope Team yes we would!
- Student sorry i ment does it depend on the type
Bugscope Team Different species of mosquitoes have different color scales. There is one species in the US that has metallic blue and purple scales.
- Student If something was to get wedged between the scale would the scale be damaged? If so, how long?
- Student coooooll tht not tht long
- Student does the debris injure the mosquito
Bugscope Team most of the debris shows up after the mosquito dies
- Student what are those spiky things?
- Student What are the ridges on the scale for
- 2:49pm
- Student they kind of look like cellaaryy and pringles rite
Bugscope Team yes they do!
- Student ohhhhh o.k.
- Student Would the ends of the scale-things prick you if you touched one?
Bugscope Team you wouldn't even feel it
- Student they look like sharp teeth and fins
- Student why are they curved????
Bugscope Team they follow the shape of the body -- of the exoskeleton
- Student can the mosquito die from drinking blood from another predotor if it has a disease
Bugscope Team That is an excellent question. Sometimes mosquitoes can die from diseases in the blood of their hosts if the viruses or bacteria are able to enter the mosquito's blood through the gut. This is an active area of research--there are lots of smart people trying to figure out what diseases can cross the barrier between the gut and the mosquito's blood.
- Student Are the thin glossy string looking things spread over the bumps to make the scales?
- Teacher Can you please give mark_emily_katie controls please?
- Student how many ridges does each scale have?
Bugscope Team WAAAY too many to count!
- Student what is this?
Bugscope Team this is the mosquito
- Bugscope Team oh and this is an ant, very tiny
- Student is tht a ant shell????
Bugscope Team we are looking at the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team Annie would look like a giant next to this ant.
- Student is the head connected or is it broken apart
Bugscope Team it is at the top and an antenna is curled around the eye
- Bugscope Team so yes it is the shell
- Student why does it have such a big head?
- Student how big is the rock?
Bugscope Team the rock is perhaps 200 micrometers in diameter
- Student ohhh thx
- 2:55pm
- Student is it squished
Bugscope Team Nope, she looks pretty intact to me.
- Student ohit just looked unconnected\
- Student why is the rock still attached
Bugscope Team It make be caught in the tarsi of the ant
- Bugscope Team the abdomen of an ant is called a 'gaster'
- Student how big is the ant creature thing
- Student What part is the rock
- Student What type of ant is this?
Bugscope Team I am not sure--I am not an expert on ants, sadly.
- Student how does the rock still attached to the ant? is it smashed into it?
- Student where did you find it
- Student What is Tarsi?????
Bugscope Team tarsi are the last several segments of the arm or leg, ending in the claw, usually
- Student What is that white thing on it?
- Student where do the ants take the body to throw it away
Bugscope Team usually each ant colony has a garbage dump. They would take the dead ant to the garbage dump.
- Student What's Tarsi?????
- Teacher Since our session is about over, do you have time for a few questions about the life of a scientist?
Bugscope Team sure!
- Bugscope Team it is kind of hectic sometimes!
- Student how is it like to be a scientist?
Bugscope Team Well, it is all sort of things. It is really exciting, it can be very boring and tedious. It can be frustrating. It is fun and challenging.
- Student do you like being a scientist
Bugscope Team it is really fun because we get to see so many cool and different things
- Bugscope Team Annie goes on collecting trips -- outdoors, which I would never do.
- Student What type of scientist are you?
Bugscope Team I am an entomologist. I study insects
- Student What's your favorite bug to work with, if you even like to work with bugs?
Bugscope Team I like earwigs because they often have mites, and I like weevils
- Student how long does it take to become an official scientist
Bugscope Team It depends on what kind of scientist you want to be. There are many scientists that take four years of college. Others, like me, get PhDs after 10 or so years of college and grad school
- 3:00pm
- Student is it fun to be a scientist
Bugscope Team yes
- Student when you get the bugs, are they already dead or do you have to kill them
Bugscope Team I usually have to kill them. I actually work with live insects most of the time.
- Student why did you become a scinecist?
Bugscope Team because it is super interesting to find out how things work
- Student ???
- Student Where do you get your bugs?
Bugscope Team I collect them in California and other places that I visit
- Student what do you like working with the best
Bugscope Team I work with longhorned beetles, beetles that bore into wood.
- Student be a sientest do you have to work with many different poisons and different insects
Bugscope Team Yes, I do work with toxic chemicals, but I only work on one kind of insect.
- Bugscope Team I am an electron microscopist, and so is Cate
- Student do you work with anything other than bugs?
Bugscope Team Nope, I just work with beetles.
- Student is ur job borring or fun???
Bugscope Team it is often a lot of fun
- Student which bug do you not like the most?
Bugscope Team I hate mosquitos and horseflies.
Bugscope Team roaches and crickets
- Student thank you for talking to use!
- Student THANK YOU!
- Student thank u for your time!!!!!!!
- Student THANK YOU FOR HELPING US TODAY
- Student Thank you Annie, Cate, Scot/Scott for your time!
- Student Thank You for your time!!!!
- Student byeee and thx for everything we learned alot bye we need to goo bye again
- Student thank you for helping us learn about bugs and the microscope!
- Student by
- Bugscope Team in the lab where I am we work with cells, and self-healing plastic, and fossils -- lots of stuff
- Student goodbye
- Student thax for your time, annie scot and scott! we had a lot of fun! see you later! bye!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Student thank-you Annie Scot and Scott for the funtime we learned a lot
- Student thank you for your time and all the answers you gave us annie scot and scott
- Bugscope Team Good Bye!
- Teacher Thank you so much for such a fun session! See you again next year!
- Student we also would like to than catie too!
- Student i learned alot i mean we leared alot thx byyyye!!
- Student bye!
- Student bye need to gooo
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Student thank you scot,scott, and annie! bye bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team Thank you!!!
- Teacher Thanks again!
- Bugscope Team Thank you very much!
