Connected on 2011-09-14 10:00:00 from Buena Vista, Iowa, United States
- 9:07am
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- 9:16am
- 9:22am
- 9:28am
- 9:34am
- 9:41am
- 9:46am
- 9:53am
- Bugscope Team good morning!
- Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team we just finished the presets
- Bugscope Team We are ready to roll, and you may start driving as soon as you wish.
- 9:58am
- Teacher We just got in from recess, ready to go!
- Bugscope Team great!
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- Teacher is that the anntenea
- Bugscope Team yes it is one of the antennae; one of them broke off
- Bugscope Team you can see the compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Team the flakelike things we see are scales
- Teacher how many eyes are in a compound eye?
Bugscope Team there can be thousands, as in this one
- Bugscope Team a wasp can have 5000 individual ommatidia -- individual facets to the eye
- Teacher Can they see in color?
Bugscope Team some can and some cannot; some of the colors we see, they cannot see as well
- Bugscope Team also, many moths and some other insects can see ultraviolet wavelengths of light that we cannot see
- 10:03am
- Bugscope Team flowers may have ultraviolet colors
- Bugscope Team be sure to click on one of the presets, to the left, when you want the 'scope to drive to another insect/arthrpod
- Bugscope Team you are driving a $600,000 microscope from your classroom
- Teacher Do all insects have compound eyes?
Bugscope Team no -- some of them have simple eyes, and some of them have both
- Teacher we can get the butterfly wing to come up
- Bugscope Team for example, wasps and bees and many other flying insects have compound eyes, of course, but they also have ocelli -- three simple eyes -- on the top of their heads
- Bugscope Team the ocelli help them keep oriented with respect to the sun, so they don't get lost
- Teacher I've clicked on butterfly wing and it says pending
- Bugscope Team yeah it seems to be hanging up
- Bugscope Team I will drive directly to it for you
- 10:09am
- Teacher Are these the scales or are they feathers?
- Bugscope Team these are scales; they function a bit like feathers
- Teacher Do wings have holes in them?
- Bugscope Team the scales have tiny holes in them, yes
- Bugscope Team scales give the wings color, and they also help if you happen to fly into a spider web
- Bugscope Team the scales will stick to the web, and come off, and you can slip out
- Teacher How many scales are on each wing? We guessed millions.
Bugscope Team I think you are close. I'm not sure anyone has counted.
- Bugscope Team the scales are what make the wings feel so silky to us
- Bugscope Team please let us help drive, since the software is acting funny this morning
- Teacher Trying to go to Probosic
- Bugscope Team let us know where you would like to go
- Teacher What are those?
- 10:14am
- Bugscope Team so we just drove past another mosquito, and now we are looking at the tip of the proboscis of a female mosquito
- Bugscope Team the proboscis is actually just a sheath for the sharp parts inside
- Teacher Can we see inside it?
Bugscope Team I am sorry we cannot see inside today.
- Bugscope Team later if you'd like Scot can send you links to the sharp parts
- Teacher Is that the part that pokes you?
Bugscope Team yes it is called the fascicle, and it has four super sharp blades, and a siphon tube that carries your blood one way and saliva the other
- Bugscope Team let us know where else you'd like to go!
- Teacher Does it have hair or fuzz on it?
Bugscope Team it has tiny microsetae -- very small hairlike features -- on it
- Bugscope Team if we look further down the shaft we will see that mosquitoes have scales as well!
- Teacher We want to see the fly head.
- Teacher Is that the eye?
- Bugscope Team yes it is! it is a little bit dried and shriveled
- 10:20am
- Bugscope Team the antennae are to the top
- Bugscope Team there is a pad part to the antenna and also a branched part called an arista
- Teacher What are the long hairy things?
Bugscope Team those are bristles that are mechanosensory
- Bugscope Team the bristles, which are also setae, go through the cuticle and attach to nerves beneath
- Teacher What does mechanosensory mean?
Bugscope Team it means that the fly can sense touch with them, like a cat's whiskers
- Teacher We would like to see the underside of the ant head.
- Bugscope Team insects have their skeleton on the outside, so it is like they are wearing armor
- Bugscope Team that was a caddisfly larva we went by
- Teacher Do ants have teeth?
Bugscope Team no they have mandibles that are made of chitin, or cuticle, like our fingernails
- Bugscope Team but some insects, like ants, have hardened mandible tips -- they may have zinc or calcium in them
- 10:25am
- Teacher Do they grow longer?
Bugscope Team usually once they are adults they do not grow anymore
- Teacher Is this inside the mouth?
Bugscope Team yes, we're looking at the mouth parts up close
- Bugscope Team some insects, and other arthropods, will molt multiple times
- Teacher Is this a queen ant or just a regular ant?
Bugscope Team this is just a regular black ant
- Bugscope Team when insects molt they can regain parts they might have lost
- Teacher What are tenent setae? Can we look at them?
Bugscope Team Tenent setae are like tiny sticky hairs that help insects stick onto things.
- Bugscope Team We are driving the scope there, give us a second
- Bugscope Team there we go!
- Bugscope Team this is a pad called a pulvillus that has lots of these tiny sticky hairs on it -- the tenent setae
- Bugscope Team tenent like the Spanish word 'tener'
- Bugscope Team so pretty!
- 10:30am
- Teacher What insects have these?
- Bugscope Team the electron beam makes them move!
- Teacher Do Wasp have these? Where are they located?
Bugscope Team wasps have them as well, and they are on the limbs, usually near the ends and sometimes between the claws
- Teacher Can we see the Mexican jumping bean trap door next?
- Bugscope Team this is one of the claws
- Bugscope Team you can see lots of scales that the moth lost when it left the bean
- Teacher What does it do?
Bugscope Team that is where the larva pupates and metamorphoses into a moth!
- Bugscope Team actually the same pesky moth that keeps coming back when we try to go to another preset
- Teacher We would like to see the ant doing a cannon ball.
- 10:35am
- Bugscope Team cannonball!
- Teacher Does he have stripes?
Bugscope Team yes! but it is a girl ant!
- Bugscope Team let's look at the stripes!
- Bugscope Team the stripes are tiny ridges that make the head more sturdy
- Teacher Are most insects that hairy?
Bugscope Team yes! they are hairy because the hairs help them sense their environment
- Bugscope Team some of the hairs are chemosensory, some are mechanosensory, some are thermosensory, and some are sticky, like the tenent setae
- Teacher Is the hair poky or soft?
Bugscope Team some are very soft, and some are rigid -- they don't bend well
- Bugscope Team some of the tiniest hairs are not sensory -- they just form patterns
- Teacher Can we see the Japanese Beetle Palp next?
Bugscope Team yes!
- 10:41am
- Bugscope Team the palp have tiny chemo receptors that are like taste buds
- Teacher Wht is that?
Bugscope Team this, now, is the palp, which is an accessory mouthpart
- Teacher Get closer.
- Bugscope Team palps help insects manipulate and taste their food
- Bugscope Team tiny tastebuds!
- Teacher Ommatidia next please.
- Bugscope Team this is a male mosquito and you can tell because he has really frilly antennae
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes it would be very hard to buy sun glasses!
- Teacher HA HA
- Bugscope Team but compound eyes allow you to see changes in the visual field very quickly when something is trying to grab you!
- Teacher Is that to attract a mate?
Bugscope Team yes it helps, and the antennae also help the male find a female
- Teacher Are those eyes?
Bugscope Team yes these are eyes!
- 10:46am
- Bugscope Team each ommatidium produces a tiny image, and all of the images together let the mosquito see around it very clearly
- Teacher Anything else that you'd like us to see? We are at the end of our attention span! :)
- Bugscope Team because there are so many eye facets, and they wrap around the head, the mosquito can see all around it
- Bugscope Team would you like to see the caddis fly?
- Teacher Wow that would be useful for a teacher! Yes lets see the fly.
- Bugscope Team these live underwater
- Bugscope Team they are predators and eat other insects
- Bugscope Team it's creepy!
- Bugscope Team under the water there are lots of things that stick to the caddisfly larva
- Teacher How do they breathe?
Bugscope Team they have tiny gills we can show you
- Bugscope Team these are the gills
- Bugscope Team and how they collect air
- Teacher We think he is scary!
Bugscope Team yes he is!
- Teacher How big is he is real life?
Bugscope Team several millimeters long, curled and tiny like the edge of your fingernail
- Teacher Thank you very much for today. We liked what we saw and learned a lot too!
- 10:51am
- Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-069
- Bugscope Team that is your member page so you can look this up later if you wish
- Bugscope Team Thank You for connecting with us today!
- Teacher Thank you!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team See you next year!
- Teacher It was great. We really enjoyed this session.
