Name ___________________________________________
Date ___________________
Period ___________
AP laboratory: Animal Behavior
Background and Overview
In this laboratory, you will observe the behavior of a member of an arthropod group called isopods and design an experiment
to investigate their responses to environmental variables.
Terrestrial isopods are land dwelling crustaceans. There are two types of terrestrial isopods: sow bugs and pill bugs (or roly
poly bugs). These are related to lobsters, crabs, and shrimp and terrestrial isopods breathe with gills. While they look similar,
sow bugs are different from pill bugs. Pill bugs will curl into a ball when threatened whereas sow bugs will attempt to flee.
Since your isopods are caught from the wild, make sure you are using the same type for your experiments (Rader aside: As a
scientist, I have to say this to ensure the integrity of your experiment but, really I won't know and you need a lot of these
suckers just get what you can get.)
Pillbug (aka Roly Poly)
Sow Bug
Ethology is the study of animal behavior. Behavior is an animal's response to sensory input, and falls into two basic
categories: learned and innate (inherited). Studying behavior includes observing an organism’s behaviors, interpreting what
is observed, and research different organisms. Ethologists study and observe an organism’s reaction to the environment
around them. Biotic and abiotic factors are limiting factors that control the maximum size of a given population. Favorable
conditions are desired by an organism of its home environment. Because of this, an animal must search for the environment
to fit its structure and lifestyle. This is called habitat selection. An animal can display many different types of orientation
behaviors, two being taxis and kinesis. Taxis behaviors are deliberate movements toward or away from a stimulus. Kinesis is
a random movement that is not oriented toward or away from a stimulus. Taxis behaviors are exemplary of the physiological
needs of an organism.
*Tips for finding pill bugs: look in dark, damp areas, especially under outdoor trash cans, rocks, logs, etc; do not catch
them until you are ready to work on the lab; return them to the capture area when the lab is complete.
Objectives
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Investigate orienting behaviors (kinesis/taxis) in pill bugs.
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Design an experiment to determine a preferred environment for pill bugs in a resource gradient.
After doing this laboratory you should understand:
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the concept of distribution of organisms in a resource gradient
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the difference between a kinesis and a taxis
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and be able to measure the effects of environmental variables on habitat selection in a controlled experiment
Page 1 of 9
Name ___________________________________________
Date ___________________
Period ___________
Pre-lab questions:
1) What is a resource gradient?
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2) What type of resource gradient will you providing for pill bugs to choose from in your experiment? (remember you
will have a minimum of 4 sections in your shoe box)
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3) How do you expect the pill bugs to behave in your resource gradient and why?
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4) What do the terms orienting behaviors, kinesis, and taxis mean? Do you expect to see these behaviors in this
experiment – if so, when and how?
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5) Identify and describe the different orienting behaviors (include kinesis/taxis) that pills bugs demonstrate in nature.
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6) Why do the pill bugs exhibit such orienting behaviors – relate it to specific body structures/functions.
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7) Complete the Research Organism Background Information Form (next page)
Page 2 of 9
Name ___________________________________________
Date ___________________
Period ___________
Animal Research: Organism Background Information Form
Research Organism: Common name
Scientific name
1. Classification:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
2. Information/characteristics about this animal: (and visual)
3. Other animals in its phylogenic family of animals
Sketch of Organism
4. Determine its requirements:
a. Space – habitat or physical make up of its home. Why are these important to the pill bug?
b. Its trophic level in the food web:
1. Is it an herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, detrivore?
2. Nutritional needs – what does it eat?
c. Its Niche – the job it plays in its environment
5. Mode of reproduction and any developmental stages the animal might go through
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Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Design a behavior laboratory experiment
You will be designing a laboratory protocol and executing that protocol to test the taxis of pill bugs in response
to the presentation of a variety of concentrations of resources in an environment and documenting the
selection of the optimal concentration of that resource or condition.
Below is a chart of possible factors that can be tested and materials suggested to carry out those experiments.
You are welcome to use one of these or choose another resource based on your research of pill bugs.
Factor
Moisture
Materials (suggested)
Distilled water so that you do not introduce other variables
in your experiment.
Temperature
cold pack, warm pack (remember thermometer to get
quantitative data)
Light
lamps, flashlights, dark construction paper, aluminum foil
(watch for temperature as an added variable with this one)
pH
Substrate
(surface)
Odor
Food
low pH (add soil sulfur), high pH (add limestone).
You can get a cheap ($8-10) soil pH meter at any
store that sells plants and planting materials (i.e
Home Depot, Lowes, Orchard Supply)
soil, sand, sandpaper, bark, paper, cedar chips, gravel
Ammonia (keep concentrations low to avoid killing your pill
bugs)
apple, potato, fish food, lunch meat (measure in grams/unit
substrate or grams/sq in)
*Choosing a more challenging your resource choice will positively affect your scoring but, be sure to get
reliable data (i.e. don't use pH haphazardly, kill all your pill bugs, and expect a better grade. You might get a
higher F but, probably not what you are looking for)
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Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Required specifications for experiment (you will lose significant points if these are not
demonstrated in your procedure/data):
a) You will need a shoe box per group (a group is 3 students maximum). Each student in a group will
have to turn in their own lab report and, other than the research data, cannot be identical to any other
member's report.
b) You need to have a resource gradient in your shoe box. Therefore, you need to select a resource to be
tested and have materials for at least 4 levels of environments that can be placed inside the shoe box
including the control materials for each environment (the materials that make up the environment
other than the tested resource).
c) Resource gradient must be clearly quantifiable – this means the variable you choose must have a
numerical measure in the environments (example 35o C is a quantifiable level, "warm" is not)
d) You will need 15-20 pill bugs for one trial.
e) Three trials of the same experiment must be run (that is a total of 45-60 pill bugs needed).
* NOTE: If you REALLY do not want to search for bugs/have waited to the last minute/have money to
burn, you can buy live pill bugs:
f)

http://shop.bugsincyberspace.com/Pill-Bugs-Armadillidium-spp-15-count-bic705.htm

https://wardsci.com/store/catalog/product.jsp?catalog_number=6703112
Each trial will be 30 minutes long.
g) For each trial you need to have at least 6 data collection times – so observe and record at least every 5
min. Use the same recording times for each trial.
h) You need a raw data table that organizes the data collected in an easy to read manner.
i)
You will need a graph of your data that best represents the trends observed. Be sure to title your
graph. A scientific figure title includes the both the dependent and independent variable.
j)
You need to include a 24 hour data point in your experiment – leave the box undisturbed and come
back and check the next day.
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Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Experiment Design Planning Form
Research question
Title of experiment
Hypothesis
Independent variable (include units)
Levels of
independent
variable
Number of
repeated trials
Dependent variable (include units of measurement)
Controlled factors (include at least 5 and explain how they will be controlled)
Control or explanation of why it is a controlled experiment
Page 6 of 9
Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Labeled diagram of your research chamber design here:
Attach a photograph of your lab set up:
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Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Laboratory Results:
(Attach your data table and graph here)
Page 8 of 9
Name ______________________________ Date _______________ Period __________
Laboratory Conclusion and Analysis
1) Describe the design of the experiment. Include what you are trying to test and how you will measure
the pills bugs behaviors (i.e. counting how many bugs are in a given area at 20 min intervals for 6 trials
etc...) How did you set it up to reduce experimental errors and obtain reliable results?
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2) How does your resource gradient – or ingredient/s in your resource gradient relate to an
environmental factor in the pill bugs natural environment; why would orienting behavior
demonstrated in your shoebox be of any value to the pill bug in its natural environment?
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3) Is the pill bug behavior your observed best classified as kinesis or taxis? Why?
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