WANTED: ISOPODS!
• 5 - 10 per person
• Look under MOIST (no
wet) rocks, mulch
• Put in a container, air is
good
• Wet a paper towel w/ the
WONDER MOLECULE
• Maybe a slice of potato
• VOILA!! A rolleypolley
house fit for royalty
ISOPODS!
Animal behavior
ETHOLOGY
Animal behavior
ETHOLOGY
Which one?
Observing your pillbug’s behavior
• How do the pillbugs seem to sense their
environment?
• Are they all the same species?
• Can you tell differences in males and females?
• How many eyes do they have?
• How many legs?
• Do they exhibit any dominance behaviors?
• How do they respire?
• How do they grow?
• What are some stimuli they seem to respond to?
Part A- Observe
Drawing your pillbug
1.
Determine the relative proportions:
a.
width : length;
b.
height : length;
c.
distance between eyes : width of body;
d.
length of antennae : length of body.
2. Count the number of body segments.
3. Count the number of legs.
4. Locate the eyes.
5. Label the body parts.
6. Note the size of the pillbug.
Pillbug (Armadillidium vulgare)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phfUcy01rg
Identification:
These crustaceans are actually not
insects they are arthropods, meaning
they have a segmented body
connected by pairs.
They are brownish to slate gray in
color, measuring as adults up to 3/4
of an inch.
Their body segments look like armor,
giving them the look of an armadillo.
Identification:
They have one set of eyes, seven
sets of legs, and two set of antennae.
These creatures have the ability to
roll up into a tight ball when
disturbed, where they got the nick
name "rolly-polly."
Biology:
Pillbugs mate throughout the year, but mostly
in the spring, in one year they can mate up to
3 times producing 7 to 200 young.
The eggs are deposited and held in the
mothers pouch located on her underside.
It takes about 45 days for the eggs to develop,
hatch, and the young to emerge from the
pouch.
Biology:
The young Pillbugs are white in color and molt
within 1 to 2 days to create their hard shell
exterior, and continue to molt every 1 to 3
weeks thereafter, reaching adulthood in 20
weeks.
These Pillbugs can live up to 3
years depending on weather conditions.
Part B Observing Behavior
Put 5 on each side
• Every minute (or .5 min), count and
record how many on each side.
• YOU CAN STILL BE DRAWING DURING
THIS SECTION.
Designing a controlled experiment
HYPOTHESIS/PREDCTION
• Poor:
I think pillbugs will move
the wet side of a choice chamber.
toward
• Better: If pillbugs prefer a moist environment,
then when they are randomly placed on both
sides of a wet/dry choice chamber and allowed to
move about freely for 10 minutes, most will be
found on the wet side.
Designing a controlled experiment
Experiment
• In a controlled experiment, you
must explicitly keep all variables
constant except the one you are
manipulating.
Designing a controlled experiment
Experiment
• YOU HAVE your independent
variable given… you must design
and execute a controlled
experiment.
• You may need supplies, get them
from Mrs.. Hobby
Lab 6: Animal Behavior
• Description
– set up an experiment to study behavior in an
organism
• pillbug kinesis / taxis
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
• Concepts
– innate vs. learned behavior
– experimental design
• control vs. experimental
• Hypothesis
• which factors affect pill bug behavior and taxis.
– choice chamber
•
•
•
•
•
temperature
humidity
light intensity
salinity
other factors
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
• Hypothesis development
– Poor:
I think pillbugs will move toward the wet side of
a choice chamber.
– Better:
If pillbugs prefer a moist environment, then
when they are randomly placed on both sides of
a wet/dry choice chamber and allowed to move
about freely for
10 minutes, most will be found on the wet side.
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
• Experimental design
sample size
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
• BIG TAKE AWAY
– How to design an experiment using animals
– Note – the new lab manual uses fruit flies instead
of pill bugs
– Do not get thrown off if you are given a different
organism – FOCUS on the experimental design and
results!
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
ESSAY 1997
A scientist working with Bursatella leachii, a sea slug that lives in an intertidal habitat in the
coastal waters of Puerto Rico, gathered the following information about the distribution of the
sea slugs within a ten-meter square plot over a 10-day period.
time of day
average distance
between individuals
12 mid
4am
8am
12 noon
4pm
8pm
12 mid
8.0
8.9
44.8
174.0
350.5
60.5
8.0
a. For the data above, provide information on each of the following:
 Summarize the pattern.
 Identify three physiological or environmental variables that could cause the slugs to vary
their distance from each other.
 Explain how each variable could bring about the observed pattern of distribution.
b. Choose one of the variables that you identified and design a controlled experiment to test
your hypothetical explanation. Describe results that would support or refute your
hypothesis.
Lab 12: Animal Behavior
ESSAY 2002
The activities of organisms change at regular time intervals. These changes are called biological rhythms. The
graph depicts the activity cycle over a 48-hour period for a fictional group of mammals called pointy-eared
bombats, found on an isolated island in the temperate zone.
a. Describe the cycle of activity
for the bombats. Discuss how
three of the following factors
might affect the physiology and/or
behavior of the bombats to result in
this pattern of activity.
• temperature
• food availability
• presence of predators
• social behavior
b. Propose a hypothesis regarding the effect of light on the cycle of activity in bombats. Describe a
controlled experiment that could be performed to test this hypothesis, and the results you would expect.