Pill Bugs Behavior
Animal Behavior in Isopods based on Climate, Light, and Surface Abstract
Pill bugs, (also named sow or potato bugs) are terrestrial crustaceans that consume decomposed leaves or other plants. In the lab performed on September 24, 2010, animal behavior of the isopods was recorded, specifically in the climate that they preferred. Various climates situations such as Light vs. Dark, Hot vs. Cold, and Wet vs. Dry were tested and observed. The results came back with the pill bugs favoring dark, wet environments. However the data took 10 minutes to be collected and the bugs’ behavior was that of kinesis. Introduction
Animal behavior envelops a wide variety of information. Learned and genetic behaviors, as well as taxis and kinesis, which was
stated in the abstract. In this lab, we tested the animal behavior principles of taxis, the act of moving toward or away from a stimulus, against kinesis, when the behavior against stimuli is unchanged. Our first hypothesis was the argument of a wet environment would be more favorable to the bugs than a dry environment. The reason for this hypothesis was to test where the isopods would be found in the real world. We thought that if the isopods preferred the wet environment in our test, they would choose it over the dry environment in the biosphere. Our hypothesis turned out to be correct, and in a ten minute observation, more isopods were located in the wet environment after data was recorded. (Every 30 seconds) Our next hypothesis was that, “if isopods preferred wet environments, would they prefer a wet/light, or wet/dark situation?” We conducted the same test, except with but chambers wet, and one with a sheet overtop, and recorded the data in the same way. After recording in 30 second intervals for 10 minutes, we got mixed results from other group compared to our own. Out of the 21 times we recorded data, the isopods preferred the light situation 7 times, dark 8 times, and the same amount was recorded 6 times. This would eventually mean that the crustaceans did not prefer light over dark, or vice versa. However, when my group compared our data to another group who did the same experiment, they were convinced pill bugs preferred the wet/dark situation compared to wet/light.
Pill bugs, (also named sow or potato bugs) are terrestrial crustaceans that consume decomposed leaves or other plants. In the lab performed on September 24, 2010, animal behavior of the isopods was recorded, specifically in the climate that they preferred. Various climates situations such as Light vs. Dark, Hot vs. Cold, and Wet vs. Dry were tested and observed. The results came back with the pill bugs favoring dark, wet environments. However the data took 10 minutes to be collected and the bugs’ behavior was that of kinesis. Introduction
Animal behavior envelops a wide variety of information. Learned and genetic behaviors, as well as taxis and kinesis, which was
stated in the abstract. In this lab, we tested the animal behavior principles of taxis, the act of moving toward or away from a stimulus, against kinesis, when the behavior against stimuli is unchanged. Our first hypothesis was the argument of a wet environment would be more favorable to the bugs than a dry environment. The reason for this hypothesis was to test where the isopods would be found in the real world. We thought that if the isopods preferred the wet environment in our test, they would choose it over the dry environment in the biosphere. Our hypothesis turned out to be correct, and in a ten minute observation, more isopods were located in the wet environment after data was recorded. (Every 30 seconds) Our next hypothesis was that, “if isopods preferred wet environments, would they prefer a wet/light, or wet/dark situation?” We conducted the same test, except with but chambers wet, and one with a sheet overtop, and recorded the data in the same way. After recording in 30 second intervals for 10 minutes, we got mixed results from other group compared to our own. Out of the 21 times we recorded data, the isopods preferred the light situation 7 times, dark 8 times, and the same amount was recorded 6 times. This would eventually mean that the crustaceans did not prefer light over dark, or vice versa. However, when my group compared our data to another group who did the same experiment, they were convinced pill bugs preferred the wet/dark situation compared to wet/light.