Connected on 2010-05-06 10:00:00 from Fairfax, VA, US
- 9:53am
- Bugscope Team presets are done and session is unlocked!
- Bugscope Team we are ready to go!
- 10:08am
- Bugscope Team yep
- 10:14am
- Bugscope Team kk
- Bugscope Team ready to roll!
- 10:20am
- Bugscope Team Yay Erin!
- Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team this is a moth
- Bugscope Team and you can see its eyes are hairy
- Teacher awsome
- Bugscope Team Hi Mereck!
- Teacher hey
- Teacher eww
- Bugscope Team you can drive around here, and you can also choose from among the presets
- Teacher Awesome
- Bugscope Team only erin can drive right now -- only one person can drive at a time
- Bugscope Team so let us know if someone else would like to have control of the microscope
- Teacher what is that thing
Bugscope Team to the left is a moth proboscis that extends so that it can drink nectar
- Bugscope Team click to center, we should tell you, is easier that click to drive
- Teacher What bug is this
Bugscope Team this is a moth
- Teacher i dont know
- Teacher wooooooooow
- Teacher What part of the moth is this?
Bugscope Team we are at the mouth area
- Bugscope Team to the right we see one of the compound eyes, and you can make out the facets of the eye, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team this is the front of the head
- Bugscope Team if you take the mag down you can see where you are
- Teacher yo
- 10:25am
- Bugscope Team you should also be able to see the presets, to the right of the chat box here. you can click on a preset to have the microscope drive to that area
- Teacher why
- Bugscope Team if you use click to drive, it is a single click, and then a single click to stop
- Bugscope Team can you see the presets, to the right?
- Bugscope Team this is the cricket
- Teacher wow
- Bugscope Team if you take the mag down you can see where you are
- Bugscope Team like if you click on minus on the Magnify control
- Bugscope Team oh! I was wrong!
- Bugscope Team this is the roly poly!
- Teacher huh
- Bugscope Team this is a roly poly/woodlouse/pillbug
- Bugscope Team and we are looking a
- Bugscope Team t its legs
- 10:31am
- Bugscope Team you can see its antennae at the top, tucked in
- Bugscope Team but now we are on the mouth area
- Teacher Are the eyes on the top
Bugscope Team the eyes are hard to see -- we may not be able to see them
- Teacher very cool
- Bugscope Team a roly poly isnt actually an insect. It's more closely related to a crab or lobster
- Bugscope Team that was me driving, trying to find the eyes
- Teacher legs, I assume?
- Bugscope Team roly polies are called 'isopods' because all of their legs are the same shape
- Bugscope Team and they have maybe seven pairs of legs
- Bugscope Team fruit fly
- Bugscope Team nearing the edge of the world
- Teacher Can you tell us what this is- is this an eye?
- Bugscope Team we ran off the edge of the world and I brought us back to this spiracle
- Bugscope Team a spiracle is a breathing tube
- 10:36am
- Bugscope Team oops 'there' is what I meant to say
- Bugscope Team this is part of the wing of the moth
- Bugscope Team it looks like shingles, but those are scales
- Bugscope Team like little feathers
- Bugscope Team insects, like moths and flies, have compound eyes- which are like lots of little eyes in one big eye
- Bugscope Team please try clicking on one of the presets
- Teacher This almost looks like wood
- Bugscope Team this is so cool -- we have never seen an insect like this before
- Bugscope Team we are not even sure it is an insect
- Bugscope Team this twig looking thing is an insect
- Bugscope Team it is attached to a much larger beetle
- Bugscope Team it has little eyes, and you can see its antenna -- the head is to the right
- Teacher will this mite suck the blood of the beetle.
Bugscope Team we are not sure! we took photos that we are sending to a mite person
- 10:42am
- Teacher this looks cool
Bugscope Team yeah it is pretty radical, for us
- Teacher what is it doing
- Bugscope Team it was either cruising around on this insect or it somehow feel on it
- Bugscope Team this is a parasitic wasp
- Teacher now thats small
- Bugscope Team often they will lay their eggs in caterpillars, and the eggs will hatch, and the larvae will eat their way out and turn into new wasps
- Bugscope Team yes it is small
- Teacher What is the long tube
Bugscope Team coming down from the head, lower right? that is one of the antennae
- Bugscope Team actually both antennae are there but they overlap
- Teacher The tube that looks like it is coming out of the eye
- Bugscope Team the wasp is upside down. the antennae are coming out in the area between the 2 eyes
- Teacher what is that?
Bugscope Team the eye is to the left and the antenna is to the right
- Teacher tell me
- Teacher all those circles
- 10:47am
- Bugscope Team as Cate said it is upside down
- Bugscope Team whoa cool
- Teacher Is that a tongue or a mouth
Bugscope Team it is kind of like a tongue -- the sponging mouthparts
- Teacher how many eyes does it have?
Bugscope Team it has 2 big compound eyes and 3 smaller simple eyes called ocelli that we cant see here
- Teacher where are the antenas
Bugscope Team the 2 pads between the eyes are the antennae. These type of antennae are unique to flies
- Bugscope Team fruit flies eat fungus that grow on fruit, and they use their mouthparts to sponge up what they want to eat -- actually they drink their food
- Teacher What are the circles on the side of the head
Bugscope Team those are the individual components, called ommatidia, of the compound eyes
- Teacher wow
- Teacher What is the area on the side of the heads that looks like a grid
Bugscope Team those are the compound eyes
- Student do u guys have a bee there
Bugscope Team not on this stub, today
- 10:52am
- Bugscope Team the closest thing we have to a bee is the wasp we just saw
- Teacher Do you know what the ladybug is made out of
Bugscope Team its shell is made of chitin, which is kind of like what our fingernails are made of
- Teacher what are the black spots yo
Bugscope Team they are black pigment on the elytra, which is what the shell on its back is called
- Teacher what are they for
Bugscope Team the spots may help the ladybugs recognize themselves, and they may highlight the red so that birds and other insects, and animals, can see them better
- Bugscope Team inside the ladybug is muscle, and hemolymph, and its inner organs
- Bugscope Team and its heart and tracheae
- Teacher mmm
- Teacher that bug is down right awesome and what those things on it's head....
Bugscope Team it has palps -- mandibular and maxillary palps, which are mouthparts that help it eat and to taste its food
- Teacher what is the dot on its head?
Bugscope Team the big bump is it's compound eye. It has another that we can't see on the other side of the head
- Teacher Do you know why it is called the "assassin" bug head
Bugscope Team they attack other bugs and suck the juice out of them
- 10:57am
- Teacher down right cool
- Teacher WANT IS THAT!!!!!!
Bugscope Team this is on or near the head of the assassin bug
- Teacher What do these hairs help the bug do
Bugscope Team the hairs help the bug sense what is going on around it. They have a hard exoskeleton that makes it hard to feel things through (unlike our skin) so it has lots and lots of hairs to feel different things
- Teacher what are the dots
Bugscope Team we are not sure but they are likely chemosensors -- they likely help the assassin bug smell different scents
- Teacher what is the BIG circle
Bugscope Team the sort of oval thing looked like a mold spore
- Bugscope Team sometimes the hairs (setae) are also chemosensory, and sometimes they are mechanosensory -- they sense touch or wind, and sometimes they are thermosensory, for hot and cold
- Teacher yes
- Teacher this is what I call me a BUG!
- Teacher and what is this
- 11:02am
- Teacher are those bones
Bugscope Team these are special hairs that allow the insect to walk on walls
- Student yey are those bones
- Bugscope Team sometimes, when the setae are very small, they are not sensory, but they form patterns that other insects recognize, and they also seem likely to trap air, which is helpful for achieving lift when the insect flies
- Teacher what is the BIG thang
Bugscope Team looks like a tiny pebble caught in those tenent setae
- Teacher can you tell us what a soldier beetle does
Bugscope Team this is a clip from Wikipedia about soldier beetle larvae: 'They consume grasshopper eggs, aphids, caterpillars and other soft bodied insects, most of which are pests.'
- Teacher wow
- Teacher is that cheez
- Student that is coolio
- Bugscope Team soldier beetles are pollinators that also eat aphids and other insects
- Teacher what is this?
- Teacher Can you take us to the wasp head again
- Bugscope Team older soldier beetles, as Cate said, eat aphids, which makes them popular with gardeners
- 11:07am
- Student radical
- Teacher perfect picture.
- Student what are the wings made out of
Bugscope Team wings are made of chitin, it's the same stuff as our fingernails are made of
- Student i know right erin
- Teacher :) what are the lines
- Bugscope Team sorry the sample stage will not stop moving...
- Bugscope Team can you click once to stop, on the screen?
- Teacher is this skin
- Student what is this part of the pic
- Teacher I am trying to get to the roly poly claw
- Teacher what is the line
- 11:12am
- Student what is that
- Teacher what is the hole
- Bugscope Team this, now, is one of the rolypoly claws
- Teacher look at the claw!! just cool!!!
- Bugscope Team and now we are on the fruit fly claw
- Teacher what is the hole
Bugscope Team the hole is where the unguitractor is that makes the claw work
- Teacher Is this the mouth
Bugscope Team this is a fruit fly claw
- Teacher what is the hair used for
Bugscope Team the hairs tell the insect what it is touching
- Teacher Can we feel these claws on our skin
Bugscope Team they are so very small you would hardly feel them
- Bugscope Team because insects do not have skin, they need to be able to sense things that they are touching or that are touching them, so they use setae, which look like hair to us
- Teacher can the claw hurt us humans?
Bugscope Team no not these claws, but maybe claws from a bigger insect would hurt us
- Teacher We have 3 more kids who just showed up
- Teacher eeeeeekkkkkkk is that hair
- Teacher what is the claw used for
Bugscope Team claws are used to grasp things -- like we use our hands
- 11:17am
- Teacher and is that EYES to
Bugscope Team the eyes of the moth, with the tongue coiled in between
- Teacher why is their hair on its eyes?
Bugscope Team the hair on the eyes is often sensory -- it lets the insect sense wind speed and direction, for example
- Student by
- Teacher thank you
- Teacher bye dudes
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Teacher ha
- Bugscope Team thanks for using bugscope with us
- 11:27am
