Connected on 2012-06-27 06:30:00 from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka
- 5:31am
- Bugscope Team venting the microscope
- Bugscope Team and sample is pumping down
- 5:43am
- Bugscope Team 'scope pumped down quickly, and we are making presets
- Bugscope Team good morning! Welcome to Bugscope!
- 5:48am
- Teacher Hello All, Just checking in here. Good morning to you all. I know it is before 6 AM.
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Bugscope Team this ant has a pollen grain stuck under her chin
- Teacher We may get people from Colombo and US logging in remotely as well.
Bugscope Team all good DaddyO
- Teacher We will start at 5 PM here (6:30 AM there). I have a few slides to set the context and then we go live!
- Teacher So, we have five bugs?
Bugscope Team we have 10 or 12 bugs and will see what looks best for today's session
- Teacher This is great, thanks, Scott!
- 5:53am
- Teacher I may be in and out so that I can get the audience inside. Be back shortly.
- Bugscope Team totally cool we will be working on the presets
- Teacher That is good, I think I would like to emphasize this preset work as well.
- 5:58am
- 6:04am
- Bugscope Team almost centered, right now, is the mouth
- Teacher Scott, just checking here. Can I try to control , so that I know this is all okay.
Bugscope Team looks like you've got it
- Teacher Okay, thanks, Scott! Go ahead and work on the presets. I am getting people inside the Embass.
- Bugscope Team good deal, shortening your screen name
- 6:09am
- Bugscope Team well it's either too early in the morning or too late for this moth
- Bugscope Team looks like Phyllis Diller
- 6:15am
- Bugscope Team this is a male mosquito
- 6:20am
- Bugscope Team and this is a spider, lying sideways
- Bugscope Team now a small moth
- Bugscope Team hello Upuli!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
- Guest hello
Bugscope Team this right now is pollen from a stargazer lily
- 6:27am
- Bugscope Team and looking for bacteria right now...
- Bugscope Team they are sparse, so far
- Teacher Scott, we are done with the slides. And, we are going live. Hello UPULI: Where are you from?
- 6:32am
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Bugscope Team this is a very small ant, from my house
- Guest colombo
- Bugscope Team you can see its compound eye, and its antennae, as well as its mandibles
- Bugscope Team the ants we see are almost all females
- Bugscope Team when we see ants with wings, those are either males or you have found the queen ant
- Bugscope Team this is what the antenna looks like, up close\
- Teacher *for
- Bugscope Team ants get most of their information about the environment via chemical signals
- Teacher Zoe: What are the hairs o the legs or?
Bugscope Team the hairs, which we often called 'setae,' help insects sense their environment
- Bugscope Team hairs can be mechanoreceptors, for touch and sensing air currents
- Guest What a beautiful image! Hello from California, USA.
- 6:37am
- Bugscope Team they can also be chemoreceptors, sensing chemical scents in the air or by touch
- Teacher kasey;is that a spiders leg or what?
Bugscope Team this is the antenna of a very small ant
- Bugscope Team now you can see it better
- Bugscope Team do you recognize this?
- Teacher emily: how many hairs are there?
Bugscope Team there are thousands of hairs, too many to count
- Teacher Hello Michele!
- Guest hello Dr. Thakkar!
- Bugscope Team some of the hairs we see are called tenent setae
- Guest Nice programme, very clear pictures
- Bugscope Team like these very delicate setae on the 'pulvillus,' which is a pad of sticky hairs usually near the claw
- Guest Amazing images! This is very interesting!
- Teacher UPULI: Where did you find out about this program?
- Bugscope Team this is how insects and comparable arthropods climb on walls and on the ceiling
- Teacher Good morning,Professor Korb!
- Bugscope Team these tiny setae stick to surfaces but can also be pulled off when the insect wants to move
- 6:43am
- Bugscope Team now you can see where we were
- Guest What is the magnification on this? My screen says only 29x
Bugscope Team presently it is 296X
- Bugscope Team Hi Michele!
- Guest HI Bugscope team!
- Bugscope Team the beetle is saluting
- Guest Salute!
- Bugscope Team this is the beetle antenna
- Teacher We are tryingto get to the beetle head but it is not accepting. Is there a delay?
Bugscope Team we were just at the beetle head
- Bugscope Team it looks like someone clicked a whole bunch of times, and there is a backlog of messages asking the 'scope to do lots of things
- Guest are they alive?
Bugscope Team no they are dead and very dry
- Teacher Gii: How does fire fly light up?
Bugscope Team the firefly has a chemical called luciferin in its abdomen, and it can activate it when it wishes, often to attract female fireflies
- Teacher Got it, thanks, Scott. The caption on the top of the image is still saying spider. Hence, the qustion. Okay, we will wait.
- 6:48am
- Bugscope Team this is the fly claw
- Bugscope Team you can see that it has the same kind of pad, called a pulvillus, as the beetle, but it is closer to the claws
- Guest I wonder if anyone is inventing shoes or climbing gear for people like the insect pulvillus yet....walking on walls would be fun.
- Guest Aside from Mission Impossible gloves.....
- Bugscope Team geckos have their own version of tenent setae that are about 10 times smaller
- Teacher Ken: Why do bugs eat poop?
Bugscope Team not all bugs eat poop, but some do of course, and it is because there are still some useful nutrients in waste material
- 6:53am
- Bugscope Team when we study insects we find that they are the ultimate recyclers, or you could say that they take advantage of every possibility to feed and survive
- Teacher Is there a way to get to the bet
- Teacher Ken: Why do bugs fly?
Bugscope Team flying is helpful, for example in aphids, when they have exhausted the resources they are currently feeding upon. flying also helps spread a species around and ensures its survival, or at least gives it a much better chance
- Teacher beetle head?
- Bugscope Team the beetle has an aphid stuck to it, just below its mouth
- Bugscope Team you can see the beetle's mandibles, and its compound eyes, as well as parts of its antennae
- Bugscope Team you can also see its palps -- two sets of palps, which are accessory mouthparts
- Teacher Charlene: How long is the normal life-span of a bug? Is there an average?
Bugscope Team probably about 6 weeks. the range is from a day or so for an adult mayfly to 17 years or so for a cicada
- 6:58am
- Bugscope Team here we can see two kinds of palps
- Teacher Natasha: What happens to bugs after they bite you (and blood comes out)?
Bugscope Team deerflies and horseflies can slurp up your blood after cutting you with the slashing mouthparts
- Teacher Ken: What do bugs eat?
Bugscope Team they eat anything that is edible, from plant parts of all types, to liquids such as nectar and sap, to other insects, to dead animals, and even paper
- Bugscope Team Natasha when a female mosquito bites you, it sucks blood into its body that then gives it enough protein to lay eggs successfully
- Teacher Natasha: I have seen mosquito bite you and get your blood. Then they die.
Bugscope Team they die when you smash them, of course, but some of them bite you and get away; they then go to a small puddle of water to lay their eggs
- Guest These are really fantastic questions, Embassy guests!
- Bugscope Team Please let me know when you would like me to drive to another location. For some reason I can control the 'scope only from the console.
- 7:04am
- Teacher Scott, pleae go ahead an dcontrol and then type.
- Teacher Peopel here want to see beetle and mosquito
- Teacher what are we seeing?
Bugscope Team this is one of the beetle's limb joints
- Bugscope Team now we see the beetle a bit better -- a low mag view
- Guest Interesting engineering design of that limb joint.
Bugscope Team ball and socket joints
- Guest And what would they say if they could chat online? :)
- Teacher Ken: How do bugs talk to each other?
Bugscope Team there is a variety of ways, of course; many use chemical signals, such as pheromones and trails of scent; some use visual signals, such as fireflies, and insects may perform specific movements...
- Bugscope Team many insects, as we know, are attracted by noise
- 7:09am
- Teacher Emily: How do we know if the bug is a male or female?
Bugscope Team sometimes we can tell, for example now, because a male mosquito has more frilly antennae than a female. with flies, the eyes of males are often close together whereas those of females are far apart. sometimes the females are much larger. if an insect has a stinger, it is a female because stingers are modified ovipositors
- Teacher What are we seeing?
Bugscope Team this is male mosquito
- Bugscope Team the compound eyes are wrinkled and caved in, I am sorry
- Bugscope Team the larger round things at the bases of the antennae are called pedicels
- Bugscope Team mosquitoes are covered with scales, and one purpose of the scales is to protect them from getting caught in spider webs
- Bugscope Team Emily often we cannot tell a male from a female insect from the outside. So it really depends on the insect. Ants are almost all females...
- 7:14am
- Bugscope Team as in moths, the antennae of male mosquitoes are often ornate, but they also serve a purpose in allowing the male to better track the noise from a female's wings or they have chemoreceptors that help them pick up pheromones from the females
- Teacher What are we seeing?
Bugscope Team that is the male mosquito antenna
- Guest Looks like a glamorous hair style ;)
Bugscope Team yes it does, all in an attempt to track down and attract, presumably, females
- Guest Well done, Mr. Mosquito.
- Guest He would get attention in San Francisco :)
- Teacher Natasha: Does a bee or wasp die after they bite ou?
Bugscope Team a honeybee would die if it stung a person, or a mammal, but not if it stung another insect
- Bugscope Team wasps can sting repeatedly; it does not kill them to sting. but with honeybees, the stinger gets caught in thick mammalian skin and pulled out of the honeybee's body, which means that it then has a big hole in it and it bleeds to death
- Teacher Cameron: Why would a honeybee not die if it stung another insect
Bugscope Team if it stings another insect, its stinger does not get caught in that insect's cuticle, so it can keep its stinger and sting again
- 7:20am
- Bugscope Team cuticle is what we call the surface of the exoskeleton of the insect; it is made of chitin, which is kind of like what our fingernails are made of
- Teacher Benjamin: How many times does a female mosquito have to bite a person in order for its' eggs to be fertilized?
Bugscope Team it just needs one good blood meal; the eggs are already fertilized, but this ensures that there is enough protein to lay them successfully, so they will live
- Bugscope Team so after the female breeds, she is ravenous for blood
- Guest vampires
Bugscope Team yes! only a few mosquito species do not need blood
- Teacher Scott: Thanks so much. I appreciate this early AM demo. Thanks, Michele, Have a great morning. I will talk to you soon then.
- Teacher Benjamin: Thank you for educating all of us with these pictures of bugs.
Bugscope Team Thank you, Benjamin! (These are live images from a scanning electron microscope.).
- Bugscope Team this is the spider
- Bugscope Team its head is not upright, but to the left
- 7:26am
- Teacher Scott, we are about to exit the Embassy. Thanks again. Michele, thanks much for your early morning visit.
- Bugscope Team Thank you, Everyone, for logging on today!
- Guest Thanks!! It was interesting! Great questions!
