Pillbug Lab Report
A Pill Bugs Preference to a Rough and Smooth Environment
The experiment that I decided to look into, was finding out if an Armadillidium vulgar, also known as a pill bug, would have a preference to the two types of environments that I had decided to experiment with. The two types of habitats that I choose were saran wrap which is smooth and sandpaper that is rough. How I set up this test was I had a choice chamber with a barrier in the middle that had a little door cut out of the bottom center so the pill bugs could walk through. I placed sandpaper on the bottom of one side and saran wrap on the bottom of the other side. After placing the pill bugs into the chamber I observed them for 10 minutes taking notes on their activity every
30 seconds. What I ended finding was for the first couple of minutes the bugs were exploring their new habitat so there was a lot of kinesis. But after about 4 minutes the pill bugs realized that there was little or no traction on the saran wrap so they would slip and end up on their backs. This wouldn’t allow them to get back right side up on their own so another pill bug would have to help them get up. So in conclusion the more favored side of the choice chamber was the side with sandpaper because it had proper traction that their legs could stick to easily.
The experiment that I decided to look into, was finding out if an Armadillidium vulgar, also known as a pill bug, would have a preference to the two types of environments that I had decided to experiment with. The two types of habitats that I choose were saran wrap which is smooth and sandpaper that is rough. How I set up this test was I had a choice chamber with a barrier in the middle that had a little door cut out of the bottom center so the pill bugs could walk through. I placed sandpaper on the bottom of one side and saran wrap on the bottom of the other side. After placing the pill bugs into the chamber I observed them for 10 minutes taking notes on their activity every
30 seconds. What I ended finding was for the first couple of minutes the bugs were exploring their new habitat so there was a lot of kinesis. But after about 4 minutes the pill bugs realized that there was little or no traction on the saran wrap so they would slip and end up on their backs. This wouldn’t allow them to get back right side up on their own so another pill bug would have to help them get up. So in conclusion the more favored side of the choice chamber was the side with sandpaper because it had proper traction that their legs could stick to easily.