Connected on 2012-11-16 08:30:00 from Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States
- 7:32am
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- 7:45am
- Bugscope Team now we are starting to make presets for today's session
- 7:50am
- 7:55am
- 8:01am
- 8:07am
- 8:15am
- Teacher Hi it's Maddy- just signing student into workstations
- Bugscope Team super cool
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll, just reading up on head anatomy
- 8:22am
- Teacher just waiting for the students
- Bugscope Team this is pretty neat, right here
- Bugscope Team the tentorial pits do not go anywhere
- Bugscope Team they are like sprues, in sculpture -- they're invaginations in the cuticle that go inside the head to support it
- Bugscope Team it's as close as they get to an endoskeleton
- Bugscope Team in ants the opening is often circular, unlike this
- 8:34am
- Student what are those grassy things
- Bugscope Team those are setae (hairs) on the surface of the compound eye
- Student Are those hexagons eyes?
Bugscope Team yes they are! they are individual facets of the compound eye, called ommatidia
- Student what is that leaf?
Bugscope Team that is a scale from some other insect
- Student whats that stuff on the hexogons
Bugscope Team some of it is juju on the surface of the eye
- Bugscope Team setae are 'hairs' that stick through the cuticle and let the insect sense its environment
- Student Why is there hair on the eyes
Bugscope Team they let the bee sense wind speed and direction as it flies, and they also help with thermoregulation, helping the bee keep its temperature stable
- Student how many facets in a eye
Bugscope Team probably 5000 to 7000 per eye on these bees
- 8:39am
- Student what is juju
Bugscope Team it is what we call dried fluids or junk on the surface of insects -- stuff we do not recognize. so it is a kind of joke
- Bugscope Team insects do not have bones in the inside of their bodies -- they are invertebrates, which actually means they do not have backbones. but they do not have any bones.
- Bugscope Team instead of bones on the inside, insects and similar arthropods like shrimp, for example, have an exskeleton -- a shell -- on the outside of the body
- Bugscope Team the exoskeleton is like if we were wearing armor -- we would not be able to feel things that were touching us
- Bugscope Team the way insects (and other arthropods) solve the problem of 'wearing armor' is to have setae that stick through the exoskeleton and attach to nerves inside
- Bugscope Team the setae (the hairs) can be mechanosensory, for touch and wind, like cat or rat whiskers
- Student do they see color?
- Student are the hexagons soft?
Bugscope Team sometimes they are hard and crystalline, and sometimes they are soft; I think these are hard
- Student Is that pollen on the hairs
Bugscope Team pollen is much larger; that is just dirt and debris -- juj
- Bugscope Team juju
- 8:45am
- Student How far can they see
Bugscope Team I do not think they see clearly as far as we do, but I am not sure exactly how far they see
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes, you would also have the advantage (although it would be hard to buy sunglasses) of having the visual field update very quickly -- you would sense motion much more quickly that we do, for example
- Student what are the holes/
- Bugscope Team many pollen grains have holes or projections that help them get carried by the wind and also to stick to things
- Bugscope Team pollen comes in many shapes and sizes
- Bugscope Team this pollen grain may be covered in part with bee saliva
- Student what about where there isn't holes?
Bugscope Team I think that is where the bee licked the pollen grain, possibly, to help it stick to the mass of pollen in the pollen basket. but this is a solo grain of pollen
- Student is that the anther or just a grain
Bugscope Team I think it just a grain.
- 8:51am
- Student how large is a pollen grain?
- Bugscope Team the anther is part of the flower, isn't it? it's the part that sticks up and is much larger
- Student do bees have talons?
Bugscope Team they have tiny claws, which are like talons in a way
- Student tongues?
Bugscope Team yes they do! they are called glossa
- Student How big is a pollen basket?
Bugscope Team the one this bee is carrying is huge, like about 4 mm in diameter
- Student why do they collect pollen?
Bugscope Team one thing they do is chew it up and mix it with nectar to feed their young
- Bugscope Team the glossa (the tongue) is kind of brush-like, and it is used with a lapping motion, like a cat drinking milk
- Bugscope Team this is one of the six claws (six legs, six pairs of claws)
- Bugscope Team there is a tendon inside the shaft of the tarsus (a segment of the forearm) called the unguitractor that opens and closes the claws
- 8:56am
- Student why do they need claws
Bugscope Team kind of the same reason we need hands -- they help them grasp things
- Student what's that in between the claws
Bugscope Team it is a pad that helps the bee stick to vertical surfaces
- Student how many hairs are on a bee?
Bugscope Team thousands of hairs -- those on the eyes are single shafts, and most of those on the body are branched. the entomologists tell us that no other insect has bramched setae
- Bugscope Team some of the bristles we see are to help the bee sense when it is touching something
- Student What color is it?
Bugscope Team haha I am not sure -- I believe it is black
- Bugscope Team when we use the electron microscope to image samples, we see only in black and white because we are using electrons instead of light. electrons are much smaller, and the images we see come as signal, as greyscale bright and dark
- Student what is that hole
Bugscope Team that is the central pore of the stinger
- Student where is the stinger
Bugscope Team it is in the center, hard to see in a way, but it is the thing with the hole in it
- Student what are the circles in the top left
Bugscope Team those are pore where setae fell out
- Student What's that ball in the middle?
Bugscope Team I think you are talking about the pore, which is round and looks kind of like a ball
- 9:01am
- Student what are those dot things
Bugscope Team those are the bases of setae that fell out -- where the hairs were
- Bugscope Team a stinger is a modified ovipositor
- Bugscope Team ova are eggs, so an ovipositor is an egg depositor
- Student is there a preset of a stinger
Bugscope Team that was it --- that was the only one on the stub today
- Student how big is the stinger
Bugscope Team we can see that it is about 50 microns in diameter (close to the width of a human hair), and it was about 3 or 4 millimeters long
- Student what is the object we have centered?
Bugscope Team really not sure...
- Student how many times can a bee sting a person
Bugscope Team once, usually, unless it is the queen, who can sting repeatedly because she has no barbs on her stinger
- Student Can certain bees sting more than once?
Bugscope Team yes they can, and if they sting other insects, all bees can sting repeatedly
- Student how long after stinging does the bee live
Bugscope Team I think less than an hour
- 9:06am
- Bugscope Team the bee's stinger gets caught in mammalian skin because it is so thick, and the stinger and the venom sac get pulled out; the bee has a big hole in the tip of its abdomen and bleeds to death
- Student does the venom from a bee sting bother us?
Bugscope Team yes it does. some people can take advantage of it, however. sometimes people get stung on purpose because it seems to have a beneficial effect, for example with people who have multiple sclerosis
- Bugscope Team if you are allergic to bee stings, or if you become allergic, or if you get too many stings at once, it can kill you
- Student what color is the blood
- Student what color is the venom?
Bugscope Team I believe it is clear, or maybe slightly yellowish
- Student can any bees kill you by a sting
Bugscope Team if you are allergic and do not get help, or if you get stung many times, you can die from the stings
- Bugscope Team African honeybees, and Africanized honeybees, are very aggressive and can kill people by stinging in large numbers
- 9:11am
- Student Does the stinger only get stuck only on humans?
Bugscope Team no it also gets stuck in other mammals with thick skin
- Student how big is the venom sack?
Bugscope Team It is about the size of a small droplet of water, maybe 2 or 3 mm if I remember right
- Student why does the honey bee sting you
Bugscope Team mostly because it feels it is protecting the hive, or protecting itself; but some bees are super aggressive and will sting just because you are near
- Student what happens when a bee stings another insect
Bugscope Team it likely kills most other insects, or paralyzes them, but the stinger does not get stuck and pull out of the bee
- Student what is hamuli
Bugscope Team hamuli are the hooks that connect the fore- and hindwings in flight
- Student it look like a hook
Bugscope Team yes! they are also called wing hooks
- Student How many hooks are there?
Bugscope Team the number varies and the shape varies, but it seems like about 20, in our experience
- Student what part of the body is that
Bugscope Team that is the back edge of the forewing
- Bugscope Team bees and wasps have four wings, and when they fly they hook the fore- and the hindwings together so they have essentially two wings for flying
- Bugscope Team bees and wasps and ants are related
- Student Are the wings stable in the wind?
- Bugscope Team it is helpful to have folding wings when you need to crawl into small spaces
- 9:17am
- Student how fast can a bee fly
Bugscope Team usually I have read about 15 to 22 miles per hour
- Student what is the wing spand
Bugscope Team it is about a centimeter, maybe 1.5, unless the bee is much larger, there are 20,000 species of bees
- Student Do different bees have different patterns on their wings?
- Student How thin is the wing?
Bugscope Team I think just a few micrometers; yesterday I told someone about 30 micrometers, and I think I was wrong
- Student will a wig grow back if it breaks off
Bugscope Team no, that is it for the bee
- Student can it still fly with a bent wing
Bugscope Team it just depends on how bad it is
- Student what is a wing made out of
Bugscope Team it is made of chitin, the same thing the exoskeleton is made of
- Student are those scars
Bugscope Team sometimes we see scars, yes -- what we see here is mostly a few microsetae and some thin film
- Student what is chitin
Bugscope Team chitin is a protein kind of like what our fingernails are made of. also -- like a shrimp cell, which is made of chitin
- Student how big is one wing
Bugscope Team it is maybe a third of a square centimeter
- 9:22am
- Bugscope Team the setae that stick through the cuticle -- the chitin, or the exoskeleton -- can sense touch, and also hot/cold, and also chemical scents. but usually those ar different setae, not the same ones
- Bugscope Team good job driving!
- Student Does the bee like to fly?
Bugscope Team it is likely they don't think about it; it is their job, and it is kind of programmed into their behavior
- Student how do bees go to the bathroom
Bugscope Team like we do, in a way, but they don't stop somewhere, and also they are more likely to conserve liquids in their bodies
- Student How long can a bee live?
- Student can a bee get stung by anotherbee
Bugscope Team yes it can
- Student how many eggs can a queen bee have
- Student can a bee hook on to another bee
Bugscope Team when they mate in the air, they can, but generally not really
- Student what is the hole
Bugscope Team that is where the stinger sticks out
- Student how many bees in a hive
Bugscope Team 15,000 to 20,000 in the spring, and 50,000 to 60,000 in summer, is what I have read, but I'm sure it varies.
- Student what happens if the queen dies
Bugscope Team there are other bees (larvae) that can be induced to become queens
- Student What is royal jelly?
Bugscope Team it is a substance that the workers have in special glands, I believe, that they regurgitate
- Student what happens if the queen bee dies
Bugscope Team she is replaced, if the hive can do it in time, with a new queen
- 9:27am
- Student What is the biggest bee ever recorded?
Bugscope Team I am not sure; probably one of the solitary bees, as big as your thiumb or larger
- Student is there a king bee
Bugscope Team no there is not; the only males are the drones, and they are not treated very well. not like kings ;)
- Student how is the queen be chosen
Bugscope Team the worker bees that function as nurses, feeding the larvae, give certain larvae greater doses of royal jelly, and that turns genes on in those larvae that make them become queens, but only one will be the next queen of that hive
- Student how do they make the wax
Bugscope Team I think I read that wax comes from a gland on the abdomen of worker bees; I am not sure
- Student thank you for your time
- Student thank you
- Student your the best
- Student What are the layers?
Bugscope Team the layers are kind of like joints that ensure that the abdomen can move; kind of like joints on armor
- Student Cool images!
- Student We learned a lot thank you!
- Student have a stinging day
Bugscope Team haha Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Teacher Thanks so much See you next year!-Maddy
Bugscope Team See you next year!
- Student we learned a lot
Bugscope Team it was really fun for us
- 9:32am
- Student Thanks for all the information!!!!!!!
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Good Bye!
