Connected on 2012-05-01 11:00:00 from Sacramento, California, United States
- 10:42am
- Bugscope Team we're making presets for today's session
- 10:47am
- 10:53am
- 11:00am
- Teacher good morning
- Teacher anyone there?
- Bugscope Team Hi
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team yup
- Teacher so what do we do
- Bugscope Team You have control of the microscope, and please let us know when you have any questions, about anything.
- Teacher Hi.. I have 30 fourth graders ready to learn
Bugscope Team Cool!
- Bugscope Team You can select from the presets, on the lefthand screen; if you click on one, the 'scope will drive to that place.
- Bugscope Team Also, you can change the magnification on the central screen, and also change focus, etc.
- Teacher what are we looking at and how much time do we stay online with you?
Bugscope Team we have you for the next hour if that works for you
- Bugscope Team that was the head of a millipede
- Bugscope Team I just moved us to the head of a ladybug
- 11:05am
- Bugscope Team and this is a small 'true bug"
- Bugscope Team you can see that one of its antennae broke
- Bugscope Team you can see its bulbous compound eyes
- Bugscope Team and you can see one reason why it is called a 'true bug': it has a piercing mouthpart
- Bugscope Team insects that are true bugs have piercing/sucking mouthparts like that
- Teacher if you don't mind, please take the lead and show us the bugs
- Bugscope Team the part that is in the middle of the bug is the proboscis, or sucker
- Bugscope Team now you can see more of the body. the legs, all six of them, are connected to the thorax
- Teacher Adam asks if it has a "sucker"
Bugscope Team yes it does!
Bugscope Team True bugs can use this "sucker" or proboscis to feed on plants, other insects, and even mammals/animals
- Bugscope Team and now we can see the tip of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team you can see that insects up close have lots of tiny hairs, called 'setae.'
- Teacher Mia asks if it is an arthropod?
Bugscope Team yes. all insects are arthropods, as are spiders, and crabs
- 11:10am
- Bugscope Team insects are invertebrates, meaning that they do not have a backbone, like mammals, including people
- Bugscope Team invertebrates do not have bones at all; instead they have what is called an exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team they don't have bones on the inside, which is what a skeleton is, but they have a shell on the outside, which is called an exoskeleton
- Teacher Aniqa asks what are all of the hairs for?
Bugscope Team The hairs are for sensory purposes. Since invertebrates have an exoskeleton, they use these hairs to feel the environment around them.
- Bugscope Team right next to the proboscis we see one of the claws of this tiny true bug
- Bugscope Team now we're looking at another insect
- Bugscope Team it's very small, and it flies, and you find it on or near fruit
- Bugscope Team you can see its eyes, which have lots of facets on them, individual lenses called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team can you guess what it is?
- Teacher The class guesses a fruit fly
Bugscope Team Yay!
- 11:15am
- Bugscope Team it is a fruit fly!
- Bugscope Team fruit flies often have lots of little spines between their eye facets that are said to help them sense the wind -- the direction of the wind and also its speed
- Teacher Julia asks What are the "hairs" sticking out of the eyes?
Bugscope Team those hairs help tell the fly if things are touching the eye and also help tell what direction the air currents are going
- Teacher Adam wants to know if they can actually see?
Bugscope Team yes they can! they can see around them without turning their heads because their eyes are large and bulbous like this
- Teacher Dominic asks How many eyes does a Fruit Fly have?
Bugscope Team 5!
Bugscope Team they have 2 compound eyes like you see here, and also 3 smaller simple eyes called ocelli.
Bugscope Team 2 compound eyes (the large ones that you see, and 3 smaller simple eyes.)
- Bugscope Team this is the fruit fly's mouth
- Bugscope Team fruit flies have sponging mouthparts, compared to the true bug, for example, with its piercing sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope Team when we see the mouth like this, we have to remember that it is dry but in real life it would be moist with saliva
- 11:20am
- Bugscope Team this is a larger fly, although it may be hard to tell
- Bugscope Team you can see that it also has compound eyes, on the sides of its head
- Bugscope Team one of its 'knees' is sticking up in front of its face
- Bugscope Team these things are the housefly's antennae
- Teacher Afra Asks, Does it have more eyes than a fruit fly?
Bugscope Team It does! It has more eye facets in its compound eyes than the fruit fly.
- Bugscope Team the housefly has sponging mouthparts like the fruitfly
- Teacher What is piece that the annteneas are connected to?
Bugscope Team the base of the antennae is another component of the antenna -- the branched parts are called the aristate antennae
- 11:26am
- Bugscope Team it also has ocelli -- the simple eyes -- but they are on top of its head and we cannot see them now
- Bugscope Team the parts of the antennae that look like pincushions have lots of sensory setae on them, like taste buds for chemical scents in the air
- Bugscope Team inside they have sensors that help them maintain their balance
- Bugscope Team this is a grain of pollen at the entrance of the housefly's mouth
- Teacher Do all bugs have ocelli? Or just flies?
Bugscope Team not all do no. They are mostly on flying insects. They help them navigate, like a built in GPS
Bugscope Team lepidopterans or moths and butterflies do not have ocelli, most other insects have 1-3
- Teacher What is the background?
Bugscope Team al the insects and sample are laying on a piece of carbon tape that is sitting on an aluminum disk.
- 11:31am
- Teacher What are we currently looking at?
- Bugscope Team here you can see the carbon tape behind these cool salt crystals from a Wendy's restaurant
- Bugscope Team table salt, which is sodium chloride, forms cubic crystals like this
- Bugscope Team when the salt comes from Wendy's, sometimes it has this neat incised appearance, like it was carved
- Teacher What are we looking at/
- Bugscope Team these things that look like rounded pebbles are actually ommatidia -- eye facets -- like the ones we saw earlier
- Bugscope Team if we take the magnification down a bit, we can see where we are
- Bugscope Team the things that look like little tops are the bases of the antennae
- 11:36am
- Teacher What are things that look like mushrooms?
Bugscope Team those are pedicels, which the antennae stick into
- Teacher What are we looking at?
Bugscope Team this is the head of a mosquito
Bugscope Team it's pretty beaten up. Looks like its biting mouthparts are missing, and both antennae are broken off.
- Bugscope Team we think that a dustmite came along after the mosquito died and chewed on its face
- Bugscope Team these are the bitemarks from the dustmite, which then went somewhere also for another snack
- Bugscope Team mosquitoes like other flies have sucking mouthparts, but instead of sponging up juices/blood, it pierces in through skin to suck up blood like a syringe.
- Bugscope Team can you guess what this is?
- Bugscope Team it has two antennae, like all insects do; and it has four palps, which help it taste and manipulate its food
- Bugscope Team red with black spots
- Bugscope Team two of the palps look like vacuum cleaner nozzles
- Teacher A Ladybug?
Bugscope Team Yes it is!
- Bugscope Team it eyes are streamlined into the shape of its head
- 11:42am
- Bugscope Team now we can see one of its compound eyes better
- Teacher How many eyes does a ladybug have?
Bugscope Team it has two compound eyes, and each has probably a few hundred individual lenses, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team the antennae is lying across the bottom portion of the eye
- Bugscope Team oops I mean antenna...
- Bugscope Team the ladybug has mandibles, or jaws, that open side to side like a gate
- Bugscope Team the 'hinge' of one of the mandibles is just below the base of the antenna
- Bugscope Team this thing that looks like a happy shark is the tip of the mandible
- Bugscope Team here is inside the palp where it can taste the food
- 11:48am
- Teacher What do ladybugs eat?
Bugscope Team other insects, like aphids
Bugscope Team they also eat pollen and nectar
- Teacher Are ladybugs posinious?
Bugscope Team no but they do smell (and probably taste) bad
Bugscope Team i wouldn't say they're poisonous, though depending on the predator, they are toxic.
Bugscope Team they have alkaloids in their hemolymph that would probably be bad for a bird or something
- Teacher Why do some ladybugs have spots and others do not?
Bugscope Team hmm, don't know, there are lots of different species. spots also tend to fade as the adults get older.
- 11:54am
- Teacher How many species of ladybugs are there?
Bugscope Team there are over 300 types in North America
- Teacher Which species is most common in California?
Bugscope Team Convergent Ladybird Beetle?
Bugscope Team i don't know, that's just a random guess, since they are the most common in North America.
- 11:59am
- Bugscope Team the asian ladybug is pretty much everywhere too
Bugscope Team this is true. that's what happens when insects get introduced. they just take over.
- Teacher Can we see a different picture?
Bugscope Team sorry it looks like there's a little bit of a problem with the driving. Hang on while I see if I can fix it
- Bugscope Team hmm ok random information time
- Bugscope Team the true bug you saw earlier, there is a family within them called assassin bugs
- Bugscope Team most of these hunt other insects for food, and suck the blood out
- Bugscope Team however, some have adapted to feed on mammalian blood
- Bugscope Team there is one down in central/south america that spreads a disease called chagas disease
- Bugscope Team a lot of times, this disease is little to no symtoms
- Bugscope Team until you just wake up dead one day
- Bugscope Team we are back on the housefly. I don't know what the problem is with the driving mechanism though.
- Bugscope Team cate here by the way
- Bugscope Team this is a pollen grain on the housefly tongue
- Bugscope Team if you look at the presets, there are a couple slides we haven't looked at labelled as tenent setae
- 12:05pm
- Bugscope Team this is the setae or hairs on an insect's tarsal pads
- Bugscope Team ok i think you can drive around again
- Bugscope Team they help insects walk on all types of surfaces
- Bugscope Team they also help some grapple prey
- Bugscope Team Rios are you still there?
- Teacher Yes
- Bugscope Team for example, in certain predatory species of fireflies (beetles), it uses its claws and puvillus (a pad with the tenent setae) to grab their prey, and once it has a hold on the prey, it's nearly impossible to escape
- Bugscope Team ok well we are going to have to shut down soon so we can let other researchers use it. Do you have any final questions for us?
- Teacher No we do not. Thank you for your time!
- Bugscope Team all the chat and images from today can be viewed again if you visit your member page
- Bugscope Team thank you! it was fun.
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-083
- Bugscope Team good bye!
- Teacher Good Bye!
- 12:10pm
- Bugscope Team thanks for joining us today!
- Bugscope Team it's kind of dark, but this is inside the microscope where all the insects are sitting
