Connected on 2012-05-10 12:00:00 from Manatee, Florida, United States
- 11:20am
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- Bugscope Team this is (presently) a view of the vacuum chamber
- 11:27am
- Bugscope Team today we have a spider, two ladybugs and two ladybug larvae, an earwig, a butterfly and a dragonfly wing, some special salt, a couple of houseflies, the head of a large wasp, some beetles, and a couple of ants
- Bugscope Team we never know what will look good at the micro scale until we start imaging
- 11:33am
- Bugscope Team Hello Pawel!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Guest Hallo There ;-)
- Guest How is the session going on?
- Bugscope Team we are setting up today's session, so we'll be driving around finding cool stuff for the next half hour until the the school connects at noon our time
- Bugscope Team is it 7:30 or 8:30 where you are?
- Guest Sending You all greatings from Poland. Just browsing net for remote laboratories and found your projeect few months ago
Bugscope Team Cool! Thank You!
- 11:39am
- Guest Great Job! I'm the PhD in Physics Deppartment in Lodz University, and just finishing my thesis about Interactive Windtunnel that I built in my faculty.
Bugscope Team looks good from here. totally cool about the windtunnel
- 11:44am
- Guest Sorry - connection failed
Bugscope Team we are still getting messages...
- Guest Yeah - my WiFi router playing with me.
- Guest Do you maind if I stay connected and look at the session?
Bugscope Team no problem at all -- we are glad to have you on board
- Guest Thank you very much.
- 11:50am
- Guest tunel.wfis.uni.lodz.pl if You'd like to have a look at my project. It's still under development (and still not translated into English ;-)
Bugscope Team we will be happy to check it out later today
- Bugscope Team hello Panther!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- 11:55am
- Bugscope Team Panther you have control of the microscope right now.
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions!
- Bugscope Team right now we are driving around, looking for a few more interesting places on the stub
- 12:01pm
- Bugscope Team Panther can you see this?
- Teacher Hi, the students will be arriving in about 20 minutes. May we also ask questions about being a scientist?
Bugscope Team absolutely
- Bugscope Team you have control of the microscope if you would like to drive around
- Bugscope Team sweet
- 12:07pm
- Bugscope Team if you click the arrow on the left, you can see the whole lefthand screen with a number of presets on it. if you click on one of the presets, the 'scope will drive to that place
- Teacher I went to SIU :)
Bugscope Team totally cool!
- Teacher Do you have our specimens?
Bugscope Team I put the earwig, the big green fly, and the dragonfly's wing on the stub
- Teacher thank you
- Bugscope Team if we had put the cicada in the 'scope we would have had little room for anything else
- Bugscope Team Cate, who may be logging in soon, also went to SIU.
- Bugscope Team be sure to check out the other presets
- Teacher Some students were interested about the inside. Could you dissect the cicada or is too late?
Bugscope Team when we prepare samples we have to do it in advance so we have time to mount them on the stub, coat them, and then find a few presets for you
- Teacher where do I access the presets?
Bugscope Team if you click the lefthand arrow you can see them -- the arrow to the left of the screen above
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Bugscope Team this is your earwig!
- 12:12pm
- Bugscope Team they have these odd two-part compound eyes
- Teacher When I clicked on a preset, it said ignored request because another microscope command is pending
Bugscope Team sometimes it does that and we have to wait, but you can see that you were able to access the one preset already
- Teacher I love it! Thank you for doing this.
Bugscope Team this is super fun for us
- Bugscope Team if you do have trouble with moving around we can do that for you
- Bugscope Team but of course we want you to have control of the 'scope
- Teacher What is the earwig resting on- it kind of looks like skin
Bugscope Team all of the specimens are on carbon doublestick tape. they are also stuck down using silver paint, and then they are coated with gold-palladium to ensure that they are conductive
- Bugscope Team the doublestick carbon tape has little cracks in it, and you can also see craters, or bubbles
- Bugscope Team we have not seen any silver paint yet, but it will show up
- 12:17pm
- Teacher I was trying to slide the image to see the other end. Is that possible.
- Bugscope Team if you click on the head, it will move to the center of the screen
- Bugscope Team it looks like you clicked to the right, so it centered further to the right
- Bugscope Team now we're moving back, looks like
- Bugscope Team it takes a bit of getting used to
- Bugscope Team ha you already have it\
- Bugscope Team you can see the mouthparts, the eyes, the antennae, and parts of the two forelegs
- Bugscope Team this is a female earwig
- Teacher Yeah ! The students are arriving in 5 min. I will relinquish control for them to ask questions .
- Bugscope Team if you have any other computers available you can use them as well
- Teacher One of the questions they wrote down yesterday is how to tell male from female.
Bugscope Team males have curved cercopods, like they are bowlegged; females are more demure and have straight cercopods
- Bugscope Team the cercopods are the pincers
- Bugscope Team Hello BRMS!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- 12:22pm
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- Bugscope Team we can also confer control to you if your teacher does not mind
- Bugscope Team earwigs often have mites, but we have not seen any on this one; it led a clean life
- Bugscope Team BRMS I just gave you control of the 'scope
- Bugscope Team I am at the SEM itself, so I can drive using the 'scope controls rather than the online controls
- Bugscope Team be sure to let us know whenever you have questions for us
- 12:27pm
- Bugscope Team this is the dragonfly wing, at low mag
- Bugscope Team although it is transparent, the electron beam cannot penetrate it; it sees only the surface
- Teacher Why is the dragonfly wing in sections?
Bugscope Team the wing has veins that go through it, and that is what we are seeing now; having different sections makes the wing stronger, as well
- Teacher Why does the dragonfly wing jave little hooks
Bugscope Team the hooks dissuade small animals from biting the wing, and they also likely help keep the wing from sticking down onto a wet surface
- Teacher so they have a closed circulatory system?
Bugscope Team not really, but insects can force hemolymph (their 'blood') into areas they choose
- Bugscope Team when a butterfly wants to uncoil its proboscis so it cna extend into a flower, it pushes hemolymph into it and blows it outward like a party favor
- 12:33pm
- Teacher do insects have red blood
Bugscope Team usually their blood is transparent, but when we squish insects we often see yellow fluids that may come from the gut, for example
- Bugscope Team inside the body they have an open circulatory system'
- Bugscope Team Panther I gave you control of the 'scope
- Bugscope Team this is something we have not seen before
- Teacher how fast does the fly fly?
Bugscope Team they fly perhaps 25 mph and sometimes more
- Teacher What is it?
Bugscope Team it looks like a spiracle on the face between the eye and the front of the head, but I don't know -- we've never seen it before
- Bugscope Team it's low on the face, but certainly we would have seen it before
- 12:38pm
- Teacher can flies do anything besides fly? like walk?
Bugscope Team yes they can!
- Bugscope Team here we see two of the six limbs
- Student how many eggs does a female dragonfly deliver?
Bugscope Team supposedly as many as 100,000 at a time; I am not sure that is accurate
- Teacher is your job fun and cool to do everyday?
Bugscope Team like any job some things are difficult to deal with, but we get to see the coolest stuff and work with the nicest equipment, plus we train people to image their samples, of all kinds, so we learn new stuff all of the time
- Teacher how long can a fly live?
Bugscope Team I think they average several weeks once they become adults
- Bugscope Team they are said to average 21 days
- 12:44pm
- Teacher when does the fly machure?
Bugscope Team It takes maybe 10 or 11 days from egg to adult fly
- Teacher what's that white thing by the fly's pinchers
Bugscope Team what we see now is the fly's mouthparts
- Student Do you think the mystery spot is a scab over a tear?
Bugscope Team not sure at all
- Teacher how does the fly eat?
Bugscope Team many flies have sponging mouthparts; they salivate on their food and then suck it up as a liquid
- Student How long does it take for a dragonfly egg hatch?
Bugscope Team it can take 4 hours to become a nymph, but from there it varies; it is possible according to what I read that it could take four years to mature, including an extended lifespan under water
- 12:49pm
- Teacher where does a fly like to lay it's eggs?
Bugscope Team sometimes right in manure; really it depends. some flies mature in dead animals
- Student Why do ants have hair?
Bugscope Team the hair, called setae, helps them sense their environment -- not only touch but also hot/cold and smell
- Teacher is that little thing on the head an ear or is it anyother eye?
Bugscope Team I will take the mag up so you can see the eye
- Bugscope Team this is one of the ant
- Bugscope Team 's compound eyes
- Bugscope Team insects usually do not have ears; praying mantises have one central ear, however
- Student how many eys does it have?
Bugscope Team there are two compound eyes, and in this case there are 20 or so ommatidia -- the individual facets of the eye
- Student Do ants have ears?
Bugscope Team no they don't; they can sense vibration, which is what sound is, using their setae
- Student How long is a size of a booklice?
Bugscope Team they are said to be about a 16th of an inch, so a millmeter-plus; there are 25.5 mm per inche
- Teacher how big can an ant get up to size?
Bugscope Team I think some get to nearly 2 inches long. That would be scary.
- 12:55pm
- Bugscope Team yeah the largest ants are around 4 cm long, not quite 2 inches
- Bugscope Team this is a small spider
- Student what is the most common food the spider eats?
Bugscope Team they are predatory, almost exclusively, so it would be small insects and other spiders
- Student how many hairs on the spiders body?
Bugscope Team thousands, and most are sensory. some spiders also have urticating hairs that they release when something is bothering them
- Teacher how fast does a butterfly fly
Bugscope Team from perhaps 5 to 15 miles per hour; some people say 30 mph
- Student Why do fly's eyes show more than 1 reflection?
Bugscope Team the individual facets face different directions so they can see clearly all around them. so they do not reflect all the same things
- Bugscope Team 'urticating' means itching; it is often tarantulas that release urticating hairs
- 1:00pm
- Bugscope Team this is a female spider, most likely, because it has small dainty palps in front of its face; those of males are more bulbous
- Student Why is it so hard to catch a fly?
Bugscope Team their eyes see almost all the way around them, and compound eyes are very sensitive to motion, more than our eyes; also, flies can sense the wind from your hand when you try to smack them
- Student What typ of spider is it?
Bugscope Team I'm sorry I am not sure. It is a small brown spider.
- Bugscope Team now we see, in a way, why flies can see us so well
- Bugscope Team these are the spider's fangs, going left and right, crossed over themselves
- Bugscope Team spiders inject venom into their prey that dissolves the inner organs of the prey; then they suck it all back up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Team the fangs are attached to the vertical elements, left and right, called chelicers, or chelicerae
- Bugscope Team the chelicerae are muscular, and they also have venom glands inside them
- Bugscope Team so the two big things we see now in the middle are the chelicerae
- 1:05pm
- Bugscope Team the one on the left is obscured by a palp, or pedipalp
- Bugscope Team when a spider bites, it spreads the chelicerae
- Teacher Are you an entymologist?
Bugscope Team I am an electron microscopist. When I went to college I got a degree in Biology and in English - so in a way I am more an etymologist than an entomologist
- Teacher Is the venom injected the same way a butterfly extends it's proboscus?
Bugscope Team hey that is a good question; I am not sure, but it must have some way of forcing the venom out and then sucking the liquefied food back in
- Bugscope Team we work with entomologists as much as possible and ask them lots of questions
- Bugscope Team I have been doing this for 13 years so know many of the answers
- Bugscope Team now we can see a few of the spider's eyes
- Bugscope Team spiders have simple eyes -- not compound eyes like many insects
- Bugscope Team most spiders do not see very well, but some do see quite well
- Teacher We are switching periods now so a new group will be coming in!
Bugscope Team great!
- 1:10pm
- Bugscope Team we just found a bunch of mold spores on one of the spider's legs
- Bugscope Team they look a lot like pollen grains
- 1:16pm
- Bugscope Team hello SSAS and MSA!
- Bugscope Team please let us know whenever you have questions
- Student How old were you when you became a scientist?
Bugscope Team I liked biology in high school, but when I went to college I majored in English. I decided maybe English teachers were too weird, often, so I added biology in college. It took me forever -- I dropped out for a few years. I think I was 26 when I was done and out in the world.
- Student what are the dots on the leg
Bugscope Team let's go look! I think they are oil or dirt
- Bugscope Team yeah this looks like some kind of dirt that is oily in texture
- 1:22pm
- Student what are those WIERD THINGS
Bugscope Team those are mold spores on the spider's body
- Student oh ok:)
- Bugscope Team so I used my English degree in science. I also helped other scientists write grant proposals.
- Student what is your favorite part of being a scientist?
- Student do insects have finger nails
Bugscope Team their bodies are covered with a chitin shell that is kind of like fingernails, and some of their claws and fangs, for example, are hardened chitin, much like fingernails
- Student How do spiders get mold
Bugscope Team just from being in a moist environment, and likely after they die
- Student how big does a spideris get
Bugscope Team they can get as big as your hand, but not usually in temperate zones
- Teacher can we see a dragonfly
Bugscope Team the dragonfly was missing its head and legs, so I put only the wing in the 'scope today
- Student Did the spider die naturally? Or was it from getting squashed or something?
Bugscope Team I think this one did. We hope to find them soon after they die before fungus, mold, and bacteria make them rot.
- 1:27pm
- Student ?
- Student How come the wing looks like a spider web?
Bugscope Team the wing veins form that pattern
- Student what is that hole on the wing
Bugscope Team I think I poked it with a pair of forceps
- Student How long do dragonflys live
Bugscope Team they are said to live as long as 4 years!
- Student How do you know what gender it is?
- Student do insecst pee?
Bugscope Team they usually poop more than pee. the poop is called frass. it is important to stay hydrated if you are an insect, so they don't pee quite as much -- they retain the water
- Student about how big is the wing\
Bugscope Team this was about an inch long
- Bugscope Team dragonflies have four wings; bees and wasps do as well, but they hook the fore- and hindwings together when they fly
- Student Where do insects sleep? Do they ever sleep?
Bugscope Team they may not actually sleep, but they go into a state called somnolence that is like sleeping, sort of
- Student Is it true that every time a fly lands, it vomits and/or poop?
Bugscope Team some of them seem to, but I don't think it is exactly true
- Guest I'd like to say hallo to everybody, who is taking part in this session. I'm physycist from University of Lodz (central Poland) and joined this session as guest. I'm impressed by your involvement and curiosity. Congratulations for You ALL, the Teachers too and 'scope Crew of course
- Student how do insects fly
- Teacher welcome poland
- Student Welcom Poland
- Student Welcome Poland!
- Student How come more male dragonflies have more color than the female dragonflies?
Bugscope Team often there is what is called a dimorphism in insects. although 'morph' refers to shape, sometimes people call it color dimorphism. the males may have colors to attract the females, but the females don't need to attract the males
- 1:33pm
- Student WELCOME POLAND:)!!!!
- Student Can we see an earwigg?
Bugscope Team okay here we go!
- Student do you have maggots
Bugscope Team not today; the closest we have is the ladybug larvae
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the earwig you sent
- Student can we see a scorpions pointer
Bugscope Team if you go to google and type Bugscope scorpion stinger you can find one we have located in the past. we don't have any on the stub today
- Student Do you have ladybugs?
Bugscope Team yes we do, both adults and larvae
- Teacher can we see a frog
Bugscope Team if we had a frog it would have to be very dry
- Student CAN WE SEE THE TAIL OF THE EAR WIG
Bugscope Team yes we are headed in that direction now
- Teacher do you have a tail of an earwig
Bugscope Team yes we do!
- Bugscope Team this is the earwig's abdomen
- Student Why are some ladybugs red, and others like yellow or orange?
Bugscope Team it depends in part on what they eat, and where they live, and their genes, of course
- Bugscope Team these are the earwig's cercopods -- the pincers
- Bugscope Team this is a female earwig
- 1:38pm
- Student how dose the ear wig open and closes its tail ?
Bugscope Team it has muscles on the inside of the body that allow it to do that
- Student Do earwigs have muscles? If so how many? (estimate is fine)
Bugscope Team the insides of insect bodies have muscles in them that operate all of the limbs and jaws and antennae, etc. So lots of muscles. they even have muscles in their heads
- Student what animals do bugs chase most?
Bugscope Team probably mosquitoes and flies chasing cattle, or maybe smaller mammals?
- Student Will you please show us the ladybug larave after this earwig?
- Student How do you know its a female ?
Bugscope Team the males have curved cercopods, whereas those of females are straight
- Bugscope Team lots of debris on the surface of the cercopods
- 1:43pm
- Student why does the picture have no color
Bugscope Team we are using a $600,000 scanning electron microscope, and you might ask why if it's so expensive does it not show color. but it is because we are using electrons rather than light to see what we see. electrons are super tiny, smaller than the wavelengths of light. what we see comes to us as secondary electron *signal*,. not light
- Student what is a cercopods?
Bugscope Team those are what the earwig's pincers are called
- Student Can we see a ladybug?
Bugscope Team yes!
- Student how much can a fly eat
Bugscope Team not much compared to us; it sucks its food up as a liquid; horseflies have slashing mouthparts rather than sponging mouthparts like a housefly, but they still drink their food (blood)
- Student how come earwigs are called earwigs?
Bugscope Team supposedly they go into your head via your ears, but that is not very likely
- Student is it true from bugs life the movie that flys only live 24 hours
Bugscope Team there are many species of flies, and some as adults may live only a few hours -- like mayflies
- Teacher can we see it's eye?
Bugscope Team it's in the middle now
- Student can we see the pincer
Bugscope Team sorry we were there a minute ago...
- Student Why does ladybugs have dots ?
Bugscope Team the dots likely help call attention to the ladybug, which is colored so it will stand out as a warning not to eat it -- that it tastes bad.
- Student cool
- 1:48pm
- Student how do u know the insects age
Bugscope Team we don't always know, but we make educated guesses
- Student how come earwigs are called earwigs?
Bugscope Team because when people slept on straw/hay, they would often be in the straw/hay and crawl in your ear because they like the moist area
- Student how big do fly get
Bugscope Team probably not much larger than your thumb, although it depends on what kind of fly. craneflies, for example, which look like enormous mosquitoes, are larger than that.
Bugscope Team a housefly is medium sized. There is a fly in britain that is about 60 mm long and is a wasp mimic
- Student how high can grass hoppers jump?
Bugscope Team I think the large ones can jump several yards, but the adults have wings and can thus also fly
- Teacher Does the female or the male eaewig usaully live longer?
Bugscope Team not sure about earwigs, probably about the same. female earwigs are said to care for their young, so they may live longer
- Student Who lives longer the female or the male ?
Bugscope Team often the females live longer in the insect world
- Teacher Can you get a disease if a earwig crawls into you ear? what would happen.
Bugscope Team you most likely won't get a disease. It would just be annoying until you get the insect out. My sister-in-law had a small moth that flew in her ear and got stuck. The sound of the buzzing was annoying to her. She had to go to the hospital to get it removed
- Student How do you change bugs so quickly ?
Bugscope Team the insects are all on a 1.75-inch stage inside the scanning electron microscope, and we located some of the cool places before the session, so the 'scope has to drive only short distances to those areas
- Guest As physycist cant resist to ask one question: How big magnification is available on this microscope? How "close" can we go and observe this creatures? Anybody from students know the answer?
Bugscope Team This microscope can resolve things as small as 2 nanometers. It can magnify around 200,000x and still get a decent image. It can magnify up to a million x but it won't look any good
- 1:53pm
- Student Is that hair? Those little strands of white all over.
Bugscope Team yes it is. They are setae, or insect hairs
- Student Why did you become a scientist?
Bugscope Team I became a scientist because I was good at science (and math) in school. I like learning about it and seeing what new technologies are brought about
- Student Does all the insects have eggs?
Bugscope Team I think almost all of them do, but likely there are some that have a sort of live birth
- Teacher it only goes 200000
Bugscope Team it's probably a safety feature in the programming
- Student what is the wierdest insect you analised
Bugscope Team I like weevils, leafhoppers, and mites (which are not insects)
- Guest Thanks Cate ;-) I hoped to get the answer from students, because was curious hou much they know about electron microscopy ;-)
Bugscope Team Oh sorry
- Student How many eggs minimum do insects have?
Bugscope Team some produce only a few eggs, but most produce hundreds and thousands in an effort to let the very few that don't get eaten or dried up survive.
- Student thank you
- Teacher thank you!!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team when we use the microscope for research we operate it a bit differently; in particular we work much closer to the samples
- Student thanks for answering all of our questions :)
- Student THANK YOU
- Student thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 1:58pm
- Student We are leaving now :)) 7th period will be next
- Teacher The next class will be 7th, the last
- Student thank you
- Bugscope Team thanks for joining us today!
- Teacher thank you for this awesome learning experience!!!!
- Student yolo
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Guest Thank you! Great job!
- 2:05pm
- Guest Dear SEM Crew - Can I ask you some questions about this project?
Bugscope Team certainly
- Guest I'm physicist working on University and trying to teach future physics teachers.
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Bugscope Team we are lucky to have this kind of platform to work from
- Guest That why I'm interesting not only in veiwing bugs but in educational process even more.
- Bugscope Team what we have found is that for our audience as well as the piece of equipment we are using, insects and other arthropods like them are more likely to sustain interest than anything else
- Guest It's great oportunity for kids to take part in classes like this. Do they do it mainly during school activities?
Bugscope Team we work with schools, after school clubs, libraries, museums, school districts that are holding science nights, etc.
- 2:10pm
- Bugscope Team so yes this is almost all school related
- Guest Yeah... do whatever you can to keep students involved and then teh can do something interesting in the future ;-)
- Guest As I told you previously I'm finishing my thesis about remote experimenting, and part of it is interactiwe windtunnel which was built.
- Guest Different area of interest (but not completly) but similar methodology ;-)
- Bugscope Team we want to show kids another life form, and we want to pique their interest, give them an opportunity to think about what they are seeing and then ask any questions that come to mind. we want to ensure that we are very approachable.
- Teacher We're back with the last group of students !
- Bugscope Team hi everyone!
- Student were 7th peiod
- Bugscope Team we are looking at a beetle right now
- Bugscope Team the antenna on the left is broken as you can see. When insects dry out, their limbs become fragile and can break off easily
- Guest Thank you once again for hospitality. Good luck for everyone!
- 2:15pm
- Bugscope Team thanks Pawel
- Bugscope Team the jaws of the beetle are in the middle of the viewing area
- Student thank you
- Student That's really intresting
- Student how do antennas help beetles live
Bugscope Team they work by giving them sensory information- it could be sounds, touch, chemical feedback like taste/smell
- Student does a beetle's eye have lenses like a fly?
Bugscope Team yes, they are called compound eyes, meaning they are made of multiple lenses called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team you can see the bumps from here, which are the ommatidia
- Student why is everything in black and white?
Bugscope Team we aren't using light to image. We are using electrons. Really just a signal from a detector that is reading the electrons bouncing back from the sample
- Student What are the ommatidia?
Bugscope Team ommatidia are the individual facets (lenses) of the eye
- Student Cool. Do you know how many lenses an average beetle has in one eye
Bugscope Team this one looks like it has maybe a couple hundred
- Student Thank You!
- Student why do beetles have dots on their eyes
Bugscope Team the dots we see are the ommatidia, each of which produces its own image
- Bugscope Team some wasps have as many as 17,000 ommatidia in one compound eye
- Teacher Are the little bumps the eye ball?
Bugscope Team yes they are!
- 2:21pm
- Bugscope Team many flying insects also have three 'simple' eyes, called ocelli, on the back of the head
- Student what do insects normally eat as a diet
Bugscope Team they eat anything that is remotely edible; some eat other insects
- Student what colors do beetles see in.
Bugscope Team it depends in a way which beetles they are; they can see most of the colors, usually, and sometimes they can see ultraviolet wavelengths as well. we cannot see UV
- Student How do beetles and other animals walk up walls?
Bugscope Team they sometimes have pads of setae, which are hairs, at the ends of their legs by the claws. These pads of hair are different from the other hairs on their bodies. They help them walk on vertical surfaces
- Bugscope Team bees are said not to see red very well
- Student Does every eye have a lense, or one big lense?
Bugscope Team each one is a lens
- Student we are seveenth period and i have one more question
Bugscope Team cool!
- Student what is ultra violet please answer
Bugscope Team it's just shorter than visible light in spectrum. It would be before violet.
- Student is that hair on its head and what is it used for
Bugscope Team the hair, which in insects is called 'setae,' helps with thermoregulation (keeping a normal temperature) as well as touch and hot/cold sensing, as well as helping other bees identify them
- Student why do bees have different color . black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow where do they get the colors black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow
- 2:26pm
- Student why do bee stings hurt
Bugscope Team it is a component of the venom that hurts. The stinger itself is very sharp and small, like getting a sliver of wood in your finger
- Student Why do wasps have hair?
Bugscope Team insects do not have skin; instead they have a shell made of chitin, which is kind of like armor. so the hairs poke through that armor and help the insects sense their environment
- Student s
- Student is it possiable that insects can be conjoined?
Bugscope Team you mean live their lives stuck together? I think it is certainly possible with some insects
- Teacher What are the bald spots between the wasp's antenna?
Bugscope Team those are ocelli, a set of 3 simple eyes. They read the direction of the sun and help navigate it
- Student What is the average life span of a wasp?
Bugscope Team average is probably six weeks; some much shorter and some longer
- Student thank you scot
Bugscope Team with insects we find out new things all of the time, and there are so many that almost anything is possible
- Student So the hairs on the wasp are how they sense things, like we have five senses?
Bugscope Team yes that's right!
Bugscope Team insects make much more use of chemosenses than we do; that is, they interpret chemical signals the way we interpret words
- 2:31pm
- Student When you magnify the insect with the electrons and then you touch it will it electrocute you or be hot?
Bugscope Team no, at least that has never happened to me before. I think either we don't hit them with a high enough dose to have anything like that happen or they just dissipate before we can touch them. In some cases while we are imaging a sample we do notice that it is 'boiling', but those are usually samples that aren't very conductive for the electrons.
- Student can wasps get a scab
Bugscope Team Not like we get scabs. But I have seen dead insects where they had bled out and the blood dried, covering the wound.
- Student why do bee's die after the first sting?
Bugscope Team they die when their stinger gets caught in thick mammalian skin like ours because it gets pulled out of the body, and there is a big hole so they basically bleed to death. if a bee stings another insect it does not lose its stinger and does not die
- Student How do dragonfly's fly when they have four wings?
Bugscope Team I think it is because of the timing and position of the wings so that they do not interfere with each other
- Bugscope Team the hole is probably where we accidentally stuck the point of the pair of forceps through the wing
- Bugscope Team note that the wing is not transparent to the electron beam, but if we were to see it it would look clear to us
- Teacher In the wings
- Bugscope Team of course the wing is coated with gold-palladium now, so it looks silver in normal room light
- Student Why do dragonflys have segments on their wings?
Bugscope Team those partitions in the wings probably help strengthen the wing
- Student can they get diseases
Bugscope Team yes they can get sick like we can, just not with the same diseases
- 2:36pm
- Student how long do dragonflys live
Bugscope Team I was surprised to read that they could live 4 years or so. that is in part because they may have a long period during which they are aquatic.
- Student What is the diet of a dragonfly?
Bugscope Team they eat other insects
- Bugscope Team this is the fly you sent
- Teacher Why does the dragonfly have hooks in it?
Bugscope Team we think the hooks, which are kind of like thorns, help keep animals and other insects from chewing the wings. but it is also likely that having projections from the wings keeps them from adhering to wet surfaces
Bugscope Team they do fight, so the thorns might help with scratching up the other insects' wings
- Student About how big are the sphericals on a fly?
Bugscope Team the thoracic spiracles may be quite large, maybe a millimeter in diameter on a large fly
- Bugscope Team you can already see that this fly has thousands of ommatidia per eye
- Student what is the horn on top of the flys head
Bugscope Team that is part of one of the antennae
- Student what is that in the picture people is it a tube or a tongue
Bugscope Team it's the tongue
- Student Does the fly have hair for the same reason that the wasp had?
Bugscope Team yes. It makes insects a lot hairier than they seem
- Teacher What do flys mainly eat?
Bugscope Team they eat liquids, sometimes blood and sometimes sugary things like nectar from flowers
- Student how long does it take for a bee to form?
Bugscope Team I think usually a few weeks from the egg stage
- 2:42pm
- Student on the flys eye how many little lenses do they have?
Bugscope Team probably is the range of thousands this time. Many more than the beetle in the beginning
- Teacher Can a fly bite like a mosquito?
Bugscope Team a mosquito is a kind of fly, but I am not sure which other flies have that kind of mouthparts. horseflies have slashing/cutting mouthparts, which is why it really hurts when they bite
- Teacher What are the hooks on the arms for?
Bugscope Team those are claws. They are like hands for insects
- Student do flies get diseases
Bugscope Team yes. I think any insect can get a disease, but the diseases that affect them don't travel to humans.
- Student About how fast does a fly's wings beat?
Bugscope Team I think an average is 400 to 500 beats per second, some faster and some slower
- Bugscope Team I have read 50 t0 2000 beats per second. 50 seems so slow...
- Student can insects pea
Bugscope Team yes but usually they poop more than pee because they save moisture
- Bugscope Team insect poop is called frass. in flies it is called flyspecks, sometimes
- Student can a fly be born with only one antena?
Bugscope Team i think it would be possible, but I don't know how well it would survive
- Bugscope Team it's funny how often we get asked that
- Student Are those the legs by the fly's face?
Bugscope Team yes they are
- 2:48pm
- Student where do the magority of the insects live
Bugscope Team most live in temperate and tropical enivronments, but they live almost everywhere that it is not too cold for long
- Student Are those claws on its feet?
Bugscope Team yes they are!
- Student What do they use the claws for?
- Student how many sets of wings do fly's have
Bugscope Team only one set of wings. flies are in the family Diptera, which means 'two wings'
- Student thank you
- Student do flys have a heart? if they do is it fast or slower than a human?
Bugscope Team they have something like a heart. They have no veins or arteries. It is an open circulatory system. The heart is part a single long blood vessel the runs along the body
- Bugscope Team flies have what is called a haltere that balances the motion of the wing -- one on each side
- Student whats the biggest insect
- Student are there any poisonous flies
Bugscope Team yes there are! tsetse flies give you sleeping sickness, for example
- Student What do they use the claws for?
Bugscope Team they use them to hold on to things
- Student how long does a fly live?
Bugscope Team they can live on average around a month
- Teacher How fast can flies fly?
Bugscope Team I have read that they can fly 15 mph
- Student Is there anything else we should know that we did not ask?
- Student thank you very much. i hope we can do this again bye
- 2:53pm
- Student thank you for answering our questions
- Student thanks again
- Student Thanks for all your scientific help! We really appriciate this! This was really fun and cool!
- Teacher thank you ]
- Student Bye thank you for everything
- Bugscope Team the fairyfly is the smallest insect, and it is a wasp. They also have the most painful sting
- Teacher Good bye this was really fun and informing! thanks!
- Teacher sank you
- Student Bye :)
- Teacher How fast is the fastest bug in the world? Also thank you.
Bugscope Team dragonflies are reported to be the fastest, with speeds of 36mph
- Bugscope Team the largest insect is probably the largest stick insect, which can get to 21 or so inches in length
- Student This was very fun thank you! :)
- Bugscope Team i think you are right Scot
- Bugscope Team there is an insect called a giant weta (looks like a big cricket) that is said to be the heaviest
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Yes this was fun for us as well.
- Teacher Thank you so much for this experience, the students were very enaged and curious.
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- 2:58pm
- Bugscope Team Pawel are you still here?
- Teacher We are logging off now. We will send you pictures and our classroom experience.
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-184
