Connected on 2010-11-08 11:45:00 from Sharon, MA, US
- 10:48am
- Bugscope Team coating sample..
- 10:55am
- Bugscope Team sample is now pumping down.
- Bugscope Team you can see it in the CCD view of the specimen chamber
- 11:05am
- 11:11am
- Bugscope Team sweet!
- 11:16am
- 11:21am
- Bugscope Team hi Horace!
- Bugscope Team we are making the presets for today's Bugscope session
- Guest aha
- Guest this is amazing
- 11:27am
- Bugscope Team we're working our way around the sample in the 'scope, checking out the cool places for the class to visit when they get on
- 11:32am
- Guest it's fascinating
- Guest when is the actual bugscope session?
- Bugscope Team it's at 11:45, in about 10 minutes, runs to 1:15 this time zone
- Guest thanks, is it ok if i watch or is it just the class who can?
- Bugscope Team perfectly fine for you to watch, Horace
- Bugscope Team we are happy to have you here
- Teacher Hi are session begins at 12:45 right?
- 11:37am
- Bugscope Team 11:45 our time, like in a few minutes, right Maddy?
- Teacher Yes- the kids aren't here yet.
- Teacher What login do I use for the chat stations? Guest?
- Bugscope Team you should be able to log in as students with no password
- Bugscope Team if that does not work for some reason you can use Guest
- Bugscope Team yeah Guest then. we have some things to work out with this new interface, I'm sorry
- Bugscope Team I'd like to try to get a few more presets (this is Scot)
- Bugscope Team but please let me know as soon as you would like control
- 11:44am
- Teacher The microscope is easier to control this year
- Bugscope Team that was one thing we were shooting for
- Bugscope Team but you can see we don't have the magnification working right yet, and the student login not quite there, I guess
- Bugscope Team if you're ready I can let you have the 'scope now
- Bugscope Team we have click to center when you place the cursor on the view screen
- Teacher Okay
- Bugscope Team did away with driving directly, since it was hard to stop and people could easily run off the edge of the world
- Teacher students just came in
- Bugscope Team cool take it away and please let me know as soon as you have questions
- 11:49am
- Bugscope Team today we have one of the nicest bees we've ever had
- Bugscope Team here we're looking at the caterpillar's prolegs
- Bugscope Team caterpillars have six legs, as all insects do, but they also have these prolegs, which have little hooks called crochets
- Bugscope Team this is a flying aphid caught up in the caterpillar's arms
- Guest what are we looking at
Bugscope Team presently we are looking at a caterpillar -- I'm not sure what kind
- Bugscope Team you can see its head, to the top, and its simple bump-like eyes, which are called 'stemmata.'
- Guest do you have a honey bee?
Bugscope Team yes we do.
- 11:55am
- Guest may we see it please
- Bugscope Team the honeybee is to the north of the caterpillar, and you can move the screen to the left to see the presets -- the places Cate found that looked cool to go to.
- Bugscope Team whoever is driving -- your teacher right now -- can click on a preset and drive the 'scope to that place
- Bugscope Team now you can see the hooks called 'hamuli' that the bee (wasps do this as well) use to connect the fore- and hindwings together for flying
- Bugscope Team oops now this is the head, of course
- Bugscope Team you can see that the bee has a 'hairy' eye, and you can see its antennae and its mouthparts
- Bugscope Team plus a couple forelegs
- Bugscope Team insects often have a lot of setae -- the things that look like hair -- because they help them sense their surroundings
- Bugscope Team plus the antennae, in particular, pick up chemical signals -- smells or scents -- in the air
- Guest Why do they have hairy eyes?
- 12:00pm
- Bugscope Team it may help in gathering pollen, although I don't know why they would want pollen on their eyes, and it may help them sense wind speed and direction
- Bugscope Team fruit flies have little bristles that sense windspeed/direction
- Guest what are the little hexongon on there eves
Bugscope Team the hexagons are the individual facets of the compound eye, called 'ommatidia.'
- Bugscope Team the hexagonal shape is best for close packing and fitting into a dome-like shape
- Guest are hunybees colerblind
Bugscope Team they can see color, but they favor certain colors over other ones
- Bugscope Team from the web: Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.
- Bugscope Team they are said not to be able to see red
- Guest are these antennae
Bugscope Team yes you can see the antennae now; one in the foreground and one further back
- 12:06pm
- Bugscope Team the antennae have lots of chemoreceptors on them so they can smell the air, and the flowers, and pheromones that other bees or other insects might produce
- Bugscope Team in the background we see a pool of silver paint that Cate put down to help hold the bee onto the stub
- Guest do they feel with thier antennae
Bugscope Team they can feel with their antennae but mostly they are used to collect chemical signals in the air
- Guest why are their antennae striped??
Bugscope Team the antennae are segmented so they can move in many directions, and that makes them look striped
- Bugscope Team some of the antennal segments may not be grounded as well as others, and they may glow when the electrons we are using to image them get stuck
- Bugscope Team this is really cool -- you can see tenent setae, which allow the bee to stick to surfaces, and you can see pollen grains
- 12:11pm
- Bugscope Team the little hairlike things with flattened ends are tenent setae, which are sticky
- Bugscope Team there are a variety of pollen grains on various insects/arthropods in the 'scope today
- Bugscope Team insects and similar arthropods like centipedes and rolypolies have exoskeletons - they do not have bones or a skeleton at all on the inside of the body
- Bugscope Team an exoskeleton is like a shell -- a shrimp shell, for example
- Bugscope Team if you wore a suit of armor, that is sort of what it is like to be an insect -- you would not be able to feel things touching the suit of armor
- Guest do they use all the pollen they collect?
Bugscope Team they do not use all of it, so we can take some of it without endangering the bees' chances of survival as a colony
- 12:16pm
- Bugscope Team honey is made from the nectar that attracts the bees to the flowers, where they also collect pollen that they then disperse to other flowers
- Guest why is the pollen grain spiked
Bugscope Team some are spiked and some are not -- the pollen has to protect itself from desiccating but also needs to be able to passively attach to things/insects so it can be dispersed
- Bugscope Team you can see the stinger as well as one of the round spikey pollen grains
- Guest how big is the stinger??
- Bugscope Team if there were no bees we would not have as many crops that are dependent on bees pollinating them
- Guest do all bees have stingers
- Guest does a bee die after it stings someone
Bugscope Team honeybees die because the stinger is attached to the end of the body and is pulled out when they sting someone, leaving a big hole in the body
- 12:22pm
- Guest how much do bees eat?
- Bugscope Team the singer has a little venom pump on it like an outboard motor that detaches with the stinger and continues to pump venom into the place that is stung
- Guest how do bees communicate?
Bugscope Team one way they communicate is by dancing -- to indicate to other bees the direction of a good nectar source
- Guest do bees sleep?
Bugscope Team they don't sleep like we do but they become somnolent, sort of like sleeping
- Guest how long do bees live
- Guest do bees play ?
Bugscope Team I don't think they do what we would consider playing.
- Guest do bees get marrid
- Guest how old do they live?
Bugscope Team the queen generally lives 2 to 5 years; drone bees live maybe 40 to 50 days (males); worker bees (females) live 1 to 4 months
- Bugscope Team this one of the set of clips, called hamuli, that attaches the fore- and hindwings together so that the bee (wasps do this too) flies with essentially two rather than four wings.
- 12:28pm
- Teacher we are switching classes now
- Bugscope Team a question I missed answering was about how many eggs a queen lays. if she is in good shape -- healthy -- she can lay 2000 eggs/day
- Guest are bees always yellow
Bugscope Team I am not sure about this -- it seems like they are yellow, brown, and black all at once
- Teacher Can we put the first picture back on- I don't see it in the presets
Bugscope Team I don't remember what it was -- was it the caterpillar head?
- Teacher Thanks
- Bugscope Team bee right back...
- Teacher found it
- Bugscope Team oh ok sorry
- 12:33pm
- Bugscope Team there are a lot of critters on the stub today
- Bugscope Team but this is a nice bee
- Bugscope Team we have another bee for tomorrow but it may not be as nice as this one
- Bugscope Team the dome there is one of the three ocelli
- Bugscope Team the simple eyes that many flying insects have
- 12:39pm
- Guest why do the bees have hair
Bugscope Team the hairs all insects have help them sense their environment
- Guest why do bees have dots
- Guest what are the dots on the eyes
- Guest what are the dots on the eyes
Bugscope Team the dots are the individual facets of the compound eye, called ommatidia
- Guest why is there hair on his eyes
Bugscope Team these hairs might serve a few purposes like for sensing when it is too close to something, or feeling the direction the wind currents are moving, or maybe to even help catch pollen from plants and land them on other plants
- Guest why does a bee have hair on it
Bugscope Team the hair on a bee also likely helps with thermoregulation -- not getting too cold or hot
- Bugscope Team bees can't see the color red. just an interesting tidbit
- Bugscope Team you can see the two antennae now
- Guest Whats the tube over the eye
Bugscope Team that is an antenna
- Guest whats that tube above the eye
- Bugscope Team the antennae are segmented so they can bend
- Guest whats the tube ubove the eye
Bugscope Team the antennae are covered with chemosensors -- allowing the bee to pick up scents in the air
- 12:45pm
- Bugscope Team now this is cool
- Guest what are the circles
- Bugscope Team these are placoid sensilla- which are the chemosensors
- Bugscope Team I am at the 'scope, and I just took the mag up to 2560x so we could see the placoid sensilla on the surface of the antenna
- Guest what are the circles for?
- Bugscope Team oops Cate beat me to it of course
- Bugscope Team they're little chemical sensors
- Bugscope Team insects have exoskeletons -- they have shells like shrimp, and like if you were wearing a suit of armor
- Bugscope Team and they don't have noses
- Bugscope Team so they have hairs that stick through the shell, and sensilla like we just saw -- that give them information about their environment
- Bugscope Team here this is cool -- the hairs are called tenent setae, and they are sticky. they help the bee stick to surfaces
- Guest are the pollen baskets here
Bugscope Team I think they are nearby but not right here -- we could go to low mag to see where we are
- Bugscope Team you can see pollen now -- the little oval things
- 12:51pm
- Bugscope Team whoa cool!
- Bugscope Team I think this is the pollen comb, and the pollen basket is on the opposite side of the leg
- Bugscope Team from the photos I have seen it looks like the pollen baskets are on the outside of the hind legs of the bees
- Bugscope Team there were some mold spores too
- 12:56pm
- Guest what are the spikes on the pollen
Bugscope Team i think the spikes help the pollen get caught in the insect hairs. There are some especially spikey pollen grains that we find more often that travels very well on the insects
- Guest what are mold spores
Bugscope Team mold spores are much like pollen; they land on things and from the places they land, mold grows
- Guest where are the pollin brushes
Bugscope Team we are so close we can see only pieces of a few of the brushes
- Bugscope Team honey bees are the ones with stingers that stay in humans after stinging
- Bugscope Team bees are said to use pollen, mixing it with saliva, to form a type of high-protein bread to feed their young
- Guest how long do they live after stining somthing
- Guest the stinger dose not look that sharp
Bugscope Team the duller it is the more it hurts when it pokes into your skin
- 1:01pm
- Guest is the stinger barbed
Bugscope Team you can see that this one does not look very barbed. it may be that there are more barbs further up the shaft of the stinger
- Bugscope Team we also may be looking at it at a weird angle possibly
- Guest how fast can bees go
Bugscope Team they can fly about 20 mph
- Guest why does a bee sting hurt?
Bugscope Team it has a venom in it that hurts, and there is a little venom gland attached to the sting that continues to pump venom into your skin
- Bugscope Team I read that honeybees will not always lose their stingers when they sting; it's just that when they sting something with thick skin, like us, the stinger gets stuck and tears away from the bee's body; they can sting other bees repeatedly, apparently
- Guest why does a bee die after it stings
Bugscope Team the stinger is literally ripped out of the bee when it stings a mammal. There is a muscle that also has a venom sack that is pulled out as well. The bee bleeds to death afterwards
- Guest is the bee color blind?
Bugscope Team it cannot see colors such as red but can see violet, blue, white, purple, yellow...
- 1:07pm
- Guest can many bee stings kill you?\
Bugscope Team yes, especially if you have an allergic reaction to the sting
- Bugscope Team bees can be dangerous if you are allergic to their stings. As little as one sting could kill someone who was highly allergic
- Guest How many bees are in one hive?
Bugscope Team there are said to be as many as 35,000 in the summer and maybe 5000 in the winter months
- Guest what are the spikes on the pollen
Bugscope Team the spikes on the pollen help it attach to things that can then carry it long distances
- Guest what are the hooks
Bugscope Team those are hamuli- they hook together the fore- and hind wings so that the wings will act as one when they fly
Bugscope Team only bees, wasps, and ants have these
- Bugscope Team the hooks dont hurt the bee
- Guest what are the hairs used for on the right side
Bugscope Team we are not sure about the hairs -- the microsetae -- on the wing
- 1:12pm
- Guest how long can a bee live
Bugscope Team the queen may live 2 to 5 years; drones may live 40 to 50 days; workers -- the females -- may live 1 to 4 months
- Guest how can you tell the diffrenc between the typs of bees?
Bugscope Team it's easy to tell the difference between bumble bees and honey bees. Bumble bees are a lot bigger and brighter. But between an africanized honey bee and some other type of honey bee- I'm not sure
- Guest what is the average life time of a bee
Bugscope Team probably a few months
- Bugscope Team queen bees are larger, then drones, then workers
Bugscope Team when they are all together in the hive, the queens can be hard to tell apart even for the beekeepers, so sometimes they put a little dot on them to tell them apart
- Guest how big do bees get
- Guest how do bees see in the dark hive
Bugscope Team they likely use their antennae to get around, like ants do
- Bugscope Team some ants, which are related to bees and wasps, do not have eyes at all; they do all of the communication by scent -- by producing and sensing different signal smells
- Guest can a bee sting though someone's clothing
Bugscope Team I think they can if the clothing is tight to the body and thin
- Guest do bees sting other bees
Bugscope Team yes sometimes bees will infiltrate other hives and get stung by the colony guard bees
- Guest how does a bee communicate?
- Bugscope Team bees will communicate through stinging- pheromones are released, letting the others know to come and help sting. The pheromones can be detected by their antennae
- Guest how do bees comunucate
Bugscope Team sometimes they communicate through a dance that will indicate how far away, in what direction, and how much pollen they have found
- 1:19pm
- Bugscope Team when they sting each other, bees do not lose their stingers
- Guest were do bees put there eggs
Bugscope Team they go somewhere in the hive, not sure where. All eggs, whether they were fertilized or not, hatch. The fertilized ones are the females. Female bees are the ones that do all the work and when you see a bee, they are usually female
- Guest we learned a lot
- Guest do bees sleep
Bugscope Team they don't really sleep but they can remain motionless and conserve energy -- in a kind of 'somnolent' state
- Guest do bees have tungs
Bugscope Team their tongue is called a 'glossa'
- Guest how many eggs does a queen bee lay
Bugscope Team it can lay, if it is healthy, 2000 eggs per day
- Guest thank you
- Guest Thank you for answering our questions
- Guest how big is the queen
Bugscope Team the queen, as Cate said, often is not much bigger than the drones -- it has to be able to fly so it does not get huge
- Teacher Thanks Scot and Cate we have to go now- the answers were terrific!
- Bugscope Team we are glad you all had a good time looking at the bee up close
- Guest by
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team That was fun!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- 1:24pm
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-052
- Bugscope Team that is your member page, below
