Connected on 2011-11-21 09:45:00 from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
- 9:09am
- Bugscope Team sample is being coated right now and will be here soon
- Bugscope Team and sample is now in 'scope and pumping down
- 9:20am
- Bugscope Team good morning, MYP
- Guest good morning
- Bugscope Team our school today connects in 25 minutes, so I will be racing a bit to get the presets done
- Bugscope Team right now I'm waiting for the vacuum, which is close to being ready
- Guest ok
- Bugscope Team today's school sent us a praying mantis, and I added a few other critters
- Guest cool!
- Bugscope Team so that's the deal today -- be prepared to answer Q's about praying mantises
- Guest OK!
- Guest wooah
- Guest That looks cool!
- 9:27am
- 9:32am
- 9:38am
- 9:43am
- Bugscope Team Good Morning, Mrs Horn!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher Hi there !
- Bugscope Team we are still making presets but are ready when you are
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you would like to drive, and whenever you have questions
- Bugscope Team the praying mantis you sent is right in the middle
- 9:48am
- Teacher i still have kids coming in to class - they were dismissed late :(
- Bugscope Team good for us -- we can find a few more cool things to look at
- Teacher We are almost there.....
Bugscope Team Sweet!
- Teacher The majority of us are logged on - what are we looking at?
- 9:53am
- Bugscope Team the praying mantis head is so large we cannot see it all at once
- Bugscope Team now we can see one of its compound eyes
- Guest cool
- Guest idk
- Student what is that dot on the eye
Bugscope Team if you go up close I think you will find it is some kind of dirt
- Guest dirt
- Student what is the like grey pattern like lines that we see
- Student Oh thats makes more sense thanks
- Bugscope Team Now we can see the individual ommatidia.
- Guest that is one big mantis
- Student Wow!!
- Student That's cool!
- Student :D
- Student about how many lenses are there
Bugscope Team there are said to be as many as 10,000 ommatidia -- the individual lenses -- per eye
- Student what kind of microscope do you use? to see this
- Student What is ommitidia?
Bugscope Team the facets of the eye, what we think of as lenses, are called ommatidia. singular is ommatidium
- Student what kind of microscope do you use? to see this
Bugscope Team this is a scanning electron microscope
- Teacher trying to get down to mouthparts
- Student cool
- Student Can it show up in color?
- Student how far can it magnifi
- Guest NICE!
- Student how many people are in your lab right now
- Student can it show in color or jus black and white
- 9:58am
- Student whats is this µm
Bugscope Team that stands for micrometer, which we also call a 'micron,' -- it's a thousandth of a millimeter, or a millionth of a meter
- Student this is really cool
- Student sorry can it show in color
Bugscope Team we are looking at the insects using electrons, and the images come back as signal, in black and white, called also grayscale, so there is no color
- Student oh that's OK so it's like the v-rays you get when you brake a leg right
Bugscope Team yes in a way that is correct
- Student so cool
- Student it's like an x ray right
Bugscope Team this kind of imaging actually produces x-rays, and we can use those x-rays to tell us what elements the sample is compose of
- Guest HE'S WATCHING YOU!
- Student The mouth
- Student now what are we seeing
Bugscope Team this is the mouth of the praying mantis
- Student it would be cool to do this every day
Bugscope Team it is really fun
- Student whats the thing on the nose
Bugscope Team there is some dirt there
- Student do you have to where special clothes in the lab?
- Bugscope Team the mouthparts are kind of confusing
- Student would this work on a persons hand
Bugscope Team it would have to be inside the vacuum chamber, and very dry
- Student oh ok
- Student do you have to where special clothes in the lab
- Student Cool
- Student Bryan asked before if you do the lab with anyone else?
Bugscope Team sorry not to have caught that -- there are other people in the lab who train people to use other types of microscopes
- Student why are there 10 legs on a Caterpillar but 6 on a butterfly
- Guest why is there ten legs on a Caterpillar but only six on a butterfly?
- Student do you have to where special clothes in the lab
- Student are there scales on the mantis
Bugscope Team only from other insects it has eaten
- Student like this praying mantis, there is a lot of dirt on it, but how do they get it off of themselves or do they just leave it?
- Student how do you clean the microscope
- Student coooooool
- Teacher so could you tell me about the homoptera/hemiptera orders? I read that they were joining homoptera with hemiptera
Bugscope Team Mrs Horn I did not know that -- I am sure there will be some controversy.
- Student do you have to where special clothes in the lab
- Student how long is it
- Student does it have a Tongue??
Bugscope Team not like a bee -- I have never seen one
- Student why is there 10 legs on a caterpillar but only 6 on a butterfly
- 10:03am
- Student how do you clean the microscope
- Student Do bugs have scales
Bugscope Team butterflies, moths, mosquitoes, silverfish, and very few other insects have scales
- Student do you have to where special clothes in the la
Bugscope Team sometimes we wear labcoats if we are working with chemicals
- Student there are 17 people in our class
- Student did you have a bug project in colage
Bugscope Team I took a class on bugs in college, but I have learned more since then doing this
- Student o
- Student We did this bug project where we had to find 10 bugs and classify there orders and one that I found was a cicada. I saw that you have not heard about the homoptera/hemiptera orders but on some of the websites I found, it could be either. Do you know which?
- Student Can Bugs get pimples
- Student where are all the other people or what are they doing
Bugscope Team they're training people or working on other equipment themselves
- Student do you have live bug there to
- Student what are we looking at
- Student how do you clean the microscope
Bugscope Team with air, with ethanol; sometimes parts have to be soaked in ethanol or another solvent
- Student why are there 10 legs on a Caterpillar but only 6 on a butterfly????????
- Student what
- Student So r u still in college or r u like a professor or something
Bugscope Team I run the Microscopy Suite here at the Beckman Institute. I have a degree in English and Biology
- Student Is this one of the leg appendages?
- Student what what is ethanol
- Student what are we looking at
- Student How long on average do bugs live
Bugscope Team from days to sometimes years. probably the average is 6 weeks
- Student where did you go to get your degree
- Student why are some insects fuzzy
- Student Does it have hairs on its body
Bugscope Team yes they do -- we are supposed to call them 'setae'
- Student how long is it
Bugscope Team this was more than 10 cm long
- Guest why are there 10 legs on a caterpillar but 6 on a butterfly?
- Student Can bugs get hair
Bugscope Team the setae (hairs) are sensory, for touch, smell, and hot/cold
- Student can they harm people
- Student what what is ethanol
Bugscope Team alcohol with two carbons
- Student Can bugs get pimples
- Student why are there 10 legs on a Caterpillar but 6 only on a butterfly
- Student Is 10 cm really big or average?
Bugscope Team I think it's average for a praying mantis in this climate
- Student what is this
- 10:08am
- Guest WHAT IS THAT?
- Student what are those black things
- Student why are some insects fuzzy
- Student Like this praying mantis, there is a lot of dirt on it, but how do they get it off of them? Or do they just leave it?
Bugscope Team many insects have projections on their limbs that help them wipe dirt off of themselves and their antennae
- Student what what is ethanol
- Student where did you go to get your degree
Bugscope Team University of Kansas, finally in 1983
- Student what are the black dot on the wing
- Student why are some insects fuzzy
- Student oh
- Student Do bugs creep you out sometimes?
- Student what what is ethanol
- Guest WHAT IS THE BLACK SPOTS
Bugscope Team those are holes in this scale, from a Monarch butterfly
- Student Why are there holes with things in them
- Student what what is ethanol
- Student how long is it
Bugscope Team this is about 100 microns, about a 10th of a millimeter
- Student what what is ethanol
Bugscope Team it is a liquid that is purified alcohol; beer, for example is often 3% or 5 or 6% ethanol
- Student are these scales
- Student it looks like shingles
- Student it looks like teeth
- Student what are the black dots on the wings
- Student did you like science
- Student how are the wings connected
Bugscope Team there are flexible wing joints
- Student What are the lines/ holes
Bugscope Team the lines and holes are the latticework of the scale, which is very much like a feather
- Student why are there so many little holes on these?
Bugscope Team the holes make the scale that much lighter
- Guest how do they fly with all the holes in the wings
Bugscope Team those holes are super small, so it is not a problem
- Student what is the most interesting but you have come across
Bugscope Team I like ticks, weevils, leafhoppers...
- Student whats a weevils
- Student How old is this Butterfly?
Bugscope Team it was probably about 2 or 3 months old
- Student nevermind
- Student In what order does a cicada belong?
- Student what is this
Bugscope Team this is a silverfish, and I accidentally mounted its head down
- Student Why does it have like hair
- Guest what is this
- Student its fine'
- 10:13am
- Student can all bugs live without wings?
Bugscope Team many can. I am not sure we could say that all can, since some have to fly to be able to mate
- Student Is it an insect
Bugscope Team yes it is
- Student Do these eat other insects
- Teacher I think it's great to see the underside of it
Bugscope Team you can see the scales, which make it look silver to us.
- Student why do they call it a silverfish
- Student Wow!!!!!!
- Student whats a weevils
Bugscope Team it is sometimes called a 'snout beetle,' and they are often plant or grain pests
- Student sweet
- Student where do you find a weevils
- Student oh cool
- Student Interesting!
- Student How come there are so many scales on it?
- Student Why is it feathery
- Student Y is a ''silverFISH'' a insect
Bugscope Team probably its name reflects ;) that it looks kind of like a fish, with that silver color
- Student I meant to say y is a the silverfish the neame of an insect?
Bugscope Team just one of those things...
- Student What order does a cicada belong to?
- Student cool
- Student do all hairs do different things with different insects
- Student do the hairs sense wind
- Student do all hairs do different things with different insects
- Student WOW!!!!
- Student ITS BODY IS FEATHERY, RIGHT
- Guest what do the hairs do?
Bugscope Team hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
- Student whoa what was that?
- Student it almost looks fake.......... gross
- Guest how long have you had this moth, it looks dirty
- Student wow
- Student Do moths pollenate
- Student do all hairs do different things with different insects
Bugscope Team yes they have different purposes, but sometimes they are the same, depending...
- Student how many lenses are there here?
- Student whats chemosensory
- Student do they get cofused with all the lenses
- Student whats the difference between these hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
- Student o
- Student Why is it so feathery/ what do they do
Bugscope Team the scales actually help insect escape from spider webs -- the scales come off so easily, as you know from stroking a butterfly's wings
- Student so how do lady buts and flys stick on walls
- Student Was this model made after a golfball
- Student whats the difference between these hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
- Student cool
- 10:19am
- Student hi
- Student It's crazy to think that this is an eye! It looks like a bee hive! Awesome vocabulary!
Bugscope Team they help insects process motion, like something coming to smack them, very quickly, and the shape also means that they have very good peripheral vision
- Student whats the difference between these hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
- Student how long does it take them to learn to fly with those eyes
- Guest can you only look at bugs with this
- Student Would the bug get confused with all the eyes pointing in differnet ways
- Student whats the difference between these hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
- Student is its head like a owls head
- Student how many lenses are there
- Student do you think it looks an owl
- Student o
- Student whats the difference between these hairs are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; chemosensory, so the insect can use them to pick up scents in the air; and also thermosensory, for sensing hot and cold
Bugscope Team sometimes we cannot tell, exactly
- Student how does it eat
- Student I learned that they have hairs on there back to escape and sense danger, but do there eyes help to?
- Student :)
- Student :D
- Student wow
- Student it looks like dirt
- Student it looks like saw dust
- Student what is a caddisfly larva
- Student what is this one?
- Student does it have a nose
Bugscope Team most insects do not have what we would think of as a nose -- they sense smell with their setae, and they breathe through spiracles, which are pores connected to tracheae on the inside
- Student how do you know what end of a centipede or millipede it the front
- Student how do you know what end of a centipede or millipede it the front
- Student what is a caddisfly larva
- Student Cool vocabulary!!
- Student is this its skin
Bugscope Team they don't really have skin -- they have an exoskeleton, which is why they need to have sensory hairs that stick through the exoskeleton, which is like a shell
- Student what is this
- Student they look like teeth or something
- Student Do they use it like a crab
- Student 0
- Student Do centipedes and millipedes have eyes/ears
Bugscope Team they have eyes, and for ears they use setae that sense vibration, which is what sound is.
- Student is that a broken claw
- Student is this a claw
- Student it looks like venus fly trap is it similer
- Guest WHAT IS THIS
Bugscope Team these are the raptorial limbs of the praying mantis -- what it uses to grab and secure its prey
- Student is there a broken claw?
- Student what is a caddisfly larva
- Student how do you know what end of a centipede or millipede it the fron
Bugscope Team you can tell when you get up close; you can see the eyes, and the antennae, and the fangs on a centipede
- Student is that a broken claw
Bugscope Team yes it is
- Student Do the compound eyes gave people the idea of a golfball design
- Student it looks like a venus fly trap
- Student what do these do
- Teacher please don't reply to michael
- 10:24am
- Student what is a caddisfly larva
Bugscope Team it is the aquatic stage of the caddisfly; it lives in streams
- Teacher or ewert
- Student please reply to garrett
- Student cool
- Student is it a claw
- Teacher just kiddin
Bugscope Team I am sorry I cannot keep up with everyone today
- Student I know
- Student what is that little spot?
Bugscope Team there is a flake of dirt or something there
- Student how is the claw broken?
- Teacher i know we have a lot of questions for you - you are doing a great job!
- Student don't worry were a big class
- Student how long have you been doing this
Bugscope Team bugscope is about 13 years old, and I helped start it
- Student this was fun
- Student thank you
- Student wow
- Teacher We need to go - believe it or not - time flies....
- Guest THANKS!
- Student Can they grow the claw back
Bugscope Team only if they were going to molt, and once they have wings they are adults and do not molt
- Student how long did it take to build it
- Student Thanks
- Student Thanks
- Guest i thought we were only supose to be talking about science? "MRS.HORN"
- Guest thank you for your time it was really cool
- Guest thx
- Student THANK YOU!!(:]
- Student thank you
- Student what order does a cicada belong to?
Bugscope Team they are hemipterans
- Student bud am bu ch
- Student Thank you
- Guest bYE SJ!
- Student thank you so much I had so much fun I have to go now TTFN TTYL
- Student That is really cool! Thanks for all your hard work and trying to keep us with our questions! It was great! I wish I could do it again! Go BugScope! Thanks Again:)
- Bugscope Team Thank You All!
- Student THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Guest bYE
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Guest THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Jamie!
- Teacher we will be back this afternoon
Bugscope Team great! see you then!
- Student cool! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this was SOOOOOOOOOO fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bugscope Team sweet
- Student THAT WAS AWESOME! THANKS
Bugscope Team Thank you, Bryan
- Bugscope Team Thank you to everyone, and I am sorry -- I know I missed a lot of Q's.
- Bugscope Team we will have the same sample this afternoon, but I will try to find more presets, change things a bit
- 10:29am
- Bugscope Team alright -- over and out for now
- 1:15pm
- Bugscope Team we are back and setting up new presets for this afternoon
- 1:20pm
- Guest hi
- Bugscope Team Hello Again!
- Guest What are you doing?
- Bugscope Team I'm making new presets, I guess as you can read below...
- Guest a new group coming in?
Bugscope Team yes from 2 to 2:45
- Guest cool!
- Bugscope Team so we have a little while; it's like 1:20 here
- 1:25pm
- Guest ok
- Bugscope Team will you be able to stay on for that?
- 1:30pm
- Guest I won't.
- Guest Our school has a session later on though! :D
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Guest In june though. A long time from here.
- Bugscope Team ha well I expect you'll be once or twice ;) before then
- Guest yeah. some people are going to be on as RMS, MYP, or RMSMYP, or something like that.
- Bugscope Team like I'm on as sj, SEM, Scot, and Scott
- Guest yeah.
- Bugscope Team Cate will be back to help around Dec. 5
- Guest Getting used to the controls
Bugscope Team yeah you shouldn't have any problem
- 1:36pm
- Guest I have been to like 3 now
- Bugscope Team we have usually two per week
- Guest yeah. I've notticed
- Bugscope Team this preset didn't stick last time
- Guest ?
- Bugscope Team when we make presets, sometimes they don't get entered properly, so they end up acting like bad links
- Guest oh.
- Bugscope Team this is a worthless bee -- it's covered with some kind of film and you cannot recognize it. this morning I thought it was missing its head.
- 1:41pm
- Guest thanks for the explination
Bugscope Team it should be straightforward -- all we're doing is typing a name and hitting 'enter,' but sometimes they just don't work
- Guest lol
- 1:46pm
- Bugscope Team Japanese beetle flashing gang signs...
- 1:53pm
- Guest nice
- Bugscope Team these are always interesting to me
- Guest they look soooooooooooooooooo cool!
Bugscope Team I agree.
- 1:58pm
- Guest woah! what is that?
Bugscope Team it's the larval form of a caddisfly -- they're predators in streams
- Bugscope Team they're also good indicators of the quality of the water in a stream.
- Bugscope Team they're more creepy and impressive if you see one head-on
- Bugscope Team we are ready!
- 2:04pm
- Bugscope Team Good afternoon, Mrs Horn!
- Bugscope Team I redid the presets, so they will be a little different than this morning.
- Teacher Hey there- getting ready to go in just a minute
Bugscope Team totally cool
- Bugscope Team Hello Everyone!
- Bugscope Team Please let us know when you have questions!
- Guest this is really cool
- Bugscope Team this is one of the forelegs of the praying mantis -- they call them 'raptorial legs'
- 2:09pm
- Guest what are the spikes on their legs?
- Guest Can those pointy things on their "hands" hurt you?
Bugscope Team they might sting a bit, but it's likely the praying mantis is more scared of you
- Guest What do they use their legs/hands w/ pinches for?
- Guest why is it called raptorial legs?
Bugscope Team raptorial means 'predatory,' i.e., that it feeds on other insects; and with insects raptorial often refers to the grasping legs
- Guest What exactly is a praying mantise? I've never seen one before
Bugscope Team they are long skinny insects that have very good eyes and those frightening grasping arms
- Guest Why does a praying mantis "pray"?
Bugscope Team it's because it looks kind of devout, like it might be praying
- Teacher how do you think the leg barb was missing
Bugscope Team maybe when it caught something large!
- Teacher I'm having problems controlling the microscope - do I have control of it?
Bugscope Team you should have control. can you try a preset?
- Guest what insects does it feed on?
Bugscope Team almost anything smaller than it
- Guest Never mind about my can it kill you question
- Guest Can a praying mantise kill you?
Bugscope Team no I'm pretty sure they cannot really hurt you
- Guest do they have sharp teeth
Bugscope Team they have sharp piercing mandibles, but we cannot see them well here
- Guest how bog do they grow to be and do they go through complete or incomplete metamorphasis
- Guest Do they live in the Water?
- 2:14pm
- Guest What kind of eye does this insect have?
- Guest How big is the head in real life without a mircoscope?
Bugscope Team it's maybe a half centimeter across
- Guest What are the lumps on the eye?
- Guest what is the black dot?
Bugscope Team it's a place where the electrons are not coming back out of the sample -- it may be a grease spot or something
- Guest is the praying mantis's eye conpuond
- Guest how many lenses does it have?
Bugscope Team I read that they can have 10,000 per compound eye
- Guest How big are they usually?
Bugscope Team they can be 5 inches long in the Tropics
- Guest What are the puffed up spots on the eyes?
Bugscope Team the hexagons, if that is what you mean, are the ommatidia -- the individual eye facets
- Guest what are the bumps on its eyes
Bugscope Team some of that is dirt, Krista, and Courtney
- Guest what are those crumbly things by the eye?\
Bugscope Team it's mostly dirt
- Bugscope Team this part of the eye is collapsed
- Guest what eats a praying mantis
Bugscope Team probably birds, bats, rats if they can
- 2:19pm
- Guest what the bumps on his eyess
Bugscope Team some of the bumpy appearance was damage to the eye
- Guest So would a praying mantis eat another praying mantis?
- Guest What are the little hairs for?
- Guest Why does it not show color on the picture?
Bugscope Team we are collecting these images using high-energy electrons, and when they hit the sample, secondary electrons, which are super small, come back from the surface. we collect those secondary electrons as grayscale -- black and white -- signal
- Guest are his claws sharp
- Guest is that dirt
Bugscope Team some of it is dirt and some is probably dried saliva
- Guest is that fur?
Bugscope Team it's a lot of tiny hairs, called 'setae,' that help the insect feel and taste its food
- Guest how many teeth does a praying mantis have
Bugscope Team they don't really have teeth, but they have two power mandibles that cut into their prey
- Guest whats that?
Bugscope Team that last thing was a yellowjacket almost completely covered with some kind of film
- Guest what is under the bug
Bugscope Team doublestick carbon tape
- Guest how big are the eyes?
- Guest Can the fruit fly see all around it's body?
- Guest whats the hairs on his head
- Bugscope Team when we collect images using electrons, we get much more detail than we would if we were using light
- Guest pointy**
- 2:24pm
- Guest what are those popinty thingies?
Bugscope Team those are bristles (also called setae) that help the fly sense when something is touching it, or the wind is blowing on it. the long ones help it sense the position of its head
- Guest why do bugs have hair
- Guest how many lenses does it have on its eyes?
Bugscope Team probably 4 or 500 per eye
- Guest are the eyes the largest part of its body
- Guest whats in the backround
Bugscope Team some of that is silver paint, and the pockmarked areas are bubbles in the carbon tape
- Guest how big is it
- Guest is that hair
Bugscope Team it's kind of like hair
- Guest what is that
- Guest what are those openings?
- Guest cooooooooooool
- Bugscope Team insects do not have skin like we do -- they have an exoskeleton, which is like if you were wearing armor. so the setae stick through to help the insect sense its environment
- Guest how long are the wings normally
Bugscope Team they are different according to species but can be as long as the insect -- 3 or 4 inches, sometimes longer
- Guest what are these holes?
Bugscope Team those are spaces in the scales that make them lighter
- Guest what are the lines
Bugscope Team those are ridges that refract light in what are called structural colors
- Teacher sorry *entomology
- Guest how much food do flies eat in a day\
- Guest Do all insects have hair on them? Is it like skin?
Bugscope Team the hair is what helps them feel things, so it acts like nerve endings but can sense smell as well
- Teacher are those tiny holes on the scales?
Bugscope Team yes they are!
- Guest this is kinda cool
- Guest If those are hole in the wing how big are they?
Bugscope Team they are small -- like about the size of bacteria
- Guest Do they have to same insides as us humans, like stomach, lungs, ect.?
Bugscope Team they are comparable but in a way more primitive
- Guest why do they need holes in the wings
Bugscope Team it makes them lighter -- the scales are comparable to feathers
- 2:29pm
- Teacher why were you interested in entemology
Bugscope Team it is fascinating, another way of living
- Guest wierd
- Guest how big are the holes in the scales?
Bugscope Team just a few microns, or micrometers
- Guest why is it so flakey
- Guest if there are holes in the wings how do they fly
Bugscope Team they are so small they do not make any difference, and also -- they are stacked on top of each other, so they don't really leak much air
- Guest it looks all furry why?
- Guest how do male moths attract females
Bugscope Team usually it is the other way around -- the females produce pheromones, which are chemical attractants, like perfume to the males
- Guest Do all insects live a certain amount of time? How long does a praying mantis live?
Bugscope Team usually insects live 6 weeks to several months
- Teacher having a hard time getting moth head to focus - can you help get us there/
Bugscope Team I'll go to the 'scope and fix it.
- Guest why are the antennae feathered?
- Teacher we were trying to get to the feathered antennae
Bugscope Team there you go
- Teacher perfect! thanks!
- 2:35pm
- Guest why is it so feathery
Bugscope Team the scales actually protect butterflies, moths, mosquitoes, and silverfish from spiderwebs; the scales come off so easily that they can stick to the web while the insect slips out
- Guest how do male moths attract females
Bugscope Team they do have cool-looking antennae, and sometimes cool patterns on their wings
- Guest what does the hairs do to help
Bugscope Team some are mechanosensory -- touch sensitive; some are chemosensory, meaning the insect call smell chemical odors with them; some are thermosensory, meaning they can sense hot/cold.
- Guest why is the body so hairy and the head not as much
- Guest How big do Japaneses beetles get?
Bugscope Team only about a centimeter long
- Guest what is that?
- Guest It looks like it has the little hairs in its mouth
- Guest how do insects digest things
- Bugscope Team Sicily the microscope has a vacuum chamber where the samples are, and there is an electron beam that enters that chamber and scans across the specimens, which are coated by us with super thin metal films
- Guest Do insects have tongues?
- Guest how do male moths attract females
- Guest why are you interested in insects?
Bugscope Team they are really more and more interesting -- they have to do the things we do. eat and protect themselves and reproduce. but they have a different way of doing it, many different ways
- 2:40pm
- Guest what r those
Bugscope Team tjhose are tenent setae -- they are the sticky setae that help the fly walk on the ceiling, for example
- Guest ?
- Teacher how long did you have to study for entomology
Bugscope Team I took one class long ago. I am an electron microscopist. But I ask the entomologists questions whenever they come in. and I read up on some of this.
- Teacher how do male moths attract female moths
Bugscope Team I am not sure if males produce pheromones -- usually it is the females who produce the pheromones that attract the males
- Guest bye thx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
- Guest Ok! thank you very much!
- Guest what do they eat?
Bugscope Team nectar, the sugary liquid from flowers
- Teacher Our time has quickly gone too fast - thanks again!
Bugscope Team Homoptera are now a suborder within Hemiptera...
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-100
- Teacher oh - when did that happen?
Bugscope Team apparently someone wrote an influential paper in 1995 in which both DNA and morphology were used to show that Homoptera should be classified within Hemiptera.
- 2:45pm
- Teacher OK - I didn't know that - my notes need to change :) Thanks so much
- Bugscope Team so it has been going on for a while, but it was probably noted more by entomologists
- Bugscope Team you will find that I simplified my answer just now, a bit
- Bugscope Team Thank You to everyone! Your member page url is copied below. But it is easy to find on the Bugscope web site.
