In the BIO 14 Lab, we attempted to design a oviposition experiment that would tell us something about the relative behavior of two variants of a beetle species Callosobruchus maculatus (SI – originating from South India & BF – originating from Burkina Faso). The specific question being asked in our experiment is: How does the availability of the preferred bean type affect the oviposition strategy (measured by the number of eggs on each bean) of female SI and BF beetles? Most of our group members actually arrived this question at first independently and upon further discussion found that we all were looking to answer the same question. I arrived at this question as when looking that preferred seed of the two beetle types were so vastly energetically
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The basic set-up for this experimental design would consist of eight plates, each with a single female beetle and eight beans. The two independent variables would be whether the female of South Indian descent or Burkina Faso descent (SI or BF) and what fraction of the seeds would be of the preferred seed type (100%, 75%, 50%, or 25%). This produced the eight different conditions studied in this experiment, and the dependent variable would be the average measure of the number eggs per a bean (not considering those that have no eggs) and of each bean type. These measurements would be recorded within an hour of preparing the plates as well as twenty-four hours later. With the measure of the average number of eggs per a bean, we learn more about the oviposition behavior of whether the conditions promote one egg to one bean or multiple eggs to one bean. The other measure gives insight of if there is any chance of preference with the increase availability of the non-preferred seed type. There also aspects to the design that were included to reduce uncertainty in data and serve as some control. The two plates were the BF female beetle is in 100% mung beans and the SI female beetle is in 100% cow bean serve as a comparison level for the observations in the other plates since this were the unchanged natural oviposition behavior of the beetles is expected to be observed (since each bean is with its
The basic set-up for this experimental design would consist of eight plates, each with a single female beetle and eight beans. The two independent variables would be whether the female of South Indian descent or Burkina Faso descent (SI or BF) and what fraction of the seeds would be of the preferred seed type (100%, 75%, 50%, or 25%). This produced the eight different conditions studied in this experiment, and the dependent variable would be the average measure of the number eggs per a bean (not considering those that have no eggs) and of each bean type. These measurements would be recorded within an hour of preparing the plates as well as twenty-four hours later. With the measure of the average number of eggs per a bean, we learn more about the oviposition behavior of whether the conditions promote one egg to one bean or multiple eggs to one bean. The other measure gives insight of if there is any chance of preference with the increase availability of the non-preferred seed type. There also aspects to the design that were included to reduce uncertainty in data and serve as some control. The two plates were the BF female beetle is in 100% mung beans and the SI female beetle is in 100% cow bean serve as a comparison level for the observations in the other plates since this were the unchanged natural oviposition behavior of the beetles is expected to be observed (since each bean is with its