Pill Bug Experiment

During the last decade, redbanded stink bug has emerged as a major stink bug pest species in Louisiana. The economic threat from redbanded stink bug is also rapidly increasing in the Mid-South and Southeastern region of the United States as it continues to expand its geographical range. Since redbanded stink bug is relatively new species in the existing sting bug complex, there is a lack of information about this pest compared to other stink bugs. One of the gaps in our present understanding is its potential spring hosts where its population can build up before migrating to soybean. Field observations have revealed that red banded stink bugs were present in high numbers on leguminous host like medic, clovers and vetch along rights-of-way, ditches

The lab handout provided by the instructor was used as a guideline to conduct this experiment. The only difference was the organism used and data collection period. For this experiment, pill bugs and crickets were utilized. Also, data was collected for a period of 12 minutes.

The purpose of our experiment is to test animal behavior and reactions to a change in environment. Our guiding question is, “Why do living organisms respond to environmental factors?” This is basically a question that is asking why living things will react a certain way to environmental changes. The task to answer this question is to experiment with changing environmental factors with pill bugs.

The first variable tested was phototaxis, the movement toward or away from light. To do this, we used an empty petri dish and filled the bottom of it with filter paper. We then added five sowbugs to the petri dish and placed a lid on top. After leaving the sowbugs alone for three minutes to get acclimated to their new environment, we placed a lamp directly over the petri dish. Then we laid a piece of cardboard over the petri dish to cover exactly half of it, leaving the other half exposed to the lamp. We want the cardboard to cover close to half of it as possible to make the data as accurate as possible. The lamp was then turned on and the number of sowbugs in the light and dark locations were recorded every minute for the next twelve minutes. As shown in Table 1, we determined that sowbugs are effected negatively by phototaxis.

Kinesis occurs when the animal moves in a random motion in response to the stimulus. Throughout this lab, we put the pillbugs through four different tests. These experiments are to test to see if these animals will prefer a certain habitat rather than another and how they show this is through either kinesis movement or taxis movement.

This information would suggest that the sow bugs were not especially interested in food at the time the experiment took place.

The hypothesis that was tested was pill bugs are use to the cooler temperature of the room and natural soil would travel a greater distance once they were in a hotter environment. The hypothesis is rejected on the basis that the p-value of .760 is greater than .05. Furthermore, figure 3 supports this rejection, since the averages are very close to each other and their error bars completely overlap. This rejection means that once the pill bugs where in the hotter environment there was not difference in their behavior compared to the cooler room temperature environment; they did not travel longer distances. However looking at bugs D, F G and H in figure 2, there is a difference in distance traveled that appears to be greater than

Based on the data, the number of pill bugs on the dark side is higher at almost every minute compared the number of bugs on the light side. In the beginning, the pill bugs are evenly spread out on both sides. However, as time goes on, the number of pill bugs on the dark side increased rapidly, while the number on the light side decreases. Based on the graph, starting at about three minutes, the number of bugs on the dark side begins to increase significantly. The pill bugs quickly react and choose a best fit environment for themselves. Eventually, at nine minutes there are nine pill bugs on the dark side and only one on the light side. At the end of ten minutes, all ten of the bugs are on the dark side. If the experiment went on for a longer

I would describe the pillbugs’ response to moisture as taxis instead of kinetic. When an organism has a taxis response it either moves towards or away from a stimulus.

Wet and Dry Environments To find whether Pill bugs gravitate toward a wet or a dry experiment, two coffee filters were cut to the size of the petri dish and placed inside, however one was dampened before being placed on the bottom. Dirt was then added on top to promote a more realistic environment and five Pill bugs were placed in each side before starting to prevent bias on an environment. A log was taken every thirty (30) seconds for ten (10) minutes on how many bugs were in each chamber and a graph was then made to show the changes of the bugs' positions over time. Again, if a Pill bug was in the transgression tunnel he was determined to be in a dish by the direction he was moving or the way it's head was facing.

The purpose of our experiment was to observe the behavior of the pill bugs. We were trying to find exactly whether the pill bugs would be attracted or repelled by the chemicals. The chemicals used were vinegar, water, salt solution and a sugar

After the experiment had been conducted, the investigator concluded that the original hypothesis did not fit the outcome of the testing of the Beetle Robot. While it was hypothesized that the device would move and react in the same

Acidity of an ecosystem, measured in pH, is a crucial factor to the survival of a species in an ecosystem. Altering it can have result in dramatically negative effects, in spite of the fact that pH of an ecosystem has been dramatically changed over a relatively short period of time due to various human activities. For example, acid rain is a major environmental problem that is caused by human-made pollution. When fossil fuels are burnt to get energy, pollutants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides get mixed into the rainwater and eventually are evaporated into the atmosphere. These gases enter the atmosphere, and mix with water in the water cycle to form an acidic mixture of water and gases. This water falls in the form of acid rain, which

Throughout this experiment a number of random and procedural errors were apparent; these errors could have affected the results of the experiment in a number of ways. One experimental error that occurred during the experiment was that some flies became stuck in the food source and died. The main cause of this was the fact that the fly vials were stood up (vertically) before the flies had fully recovered from the anaesthetic. This could be overcome in future experiments by ensuring that the vials are kept horizontal until all of the flies fully recover from the anaesthetic.

Design The manipulated variable in this lab is the different food stimuli; decaying fruit and vegetables. The responding variable in this lab is the number of isopods attracted to each choice chamber, decaying fruit and vegetables or Quick Oats. The range to be used is 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 minutes. The control group was set up by observing isopods’ behavior in soil for 10 minutes.