Mylah Ferland
Animal Physiology
Dr. Philip
The Effect of Relative Humidity on Water Loss in Armadillidium vulgare
Introduction
We suspected that relative humidity had an effect on water loss in live Armadillidium vulgare, to test this we did an experiment with them in desiccators set with different relative humidity’s. Armadillidium vulgare (isopod) or pill bug need a habitat with a damp surface so that they do not dry out and die. To keep them from dying when we are not using them in experiments they are kept in a container that is full of soil with the top layer moist and with a wet paper towel for them. One way that they will protect themselves from predators and water loss is buy rolling up into a little ball (Smigel and Gibbs, 2008???). Desiccators are used because we can …show more content…
Next we weighed out twelve Armadillidium vulgare and placed them into the individual tubes and recorded their weight with their number. 1-4 were our controls and were left out on the table, 5-8 we placed into a desiccator at 0% relative humidity and 9-12 were placed into a desiccator at 100% relative humidity. We weighed them after two hours and then placed them right back into the desiccators for another two hours then weighed them for their final weight.
Results
We saw changes in the weights of the Armadillidium vulgare over the four-hour period, we can see some changes even at two hours. Looking at table 1 it seems the most weight was lost in the larger Armadillidium vulgare and at the lower relative humidity. Our findings are supported by Smigel and Gibbs (2008) findings that in Armadillidium vulgare water-loss declined as relative humidity increased and larger individuals lost water faster than smaller ones. Figure 1: Relative humidity’s effect on the weight of Armadillidium vulgare over four hours
Isopod # Initial Mass (g) Mass @ 2hrs (g) Mass @ 4 total hrs (g) Mass lost
Animal Physiology
Dr. Philip
The Effect of Relative Humidity on Water Loss in Armadillidium vulgare
Introduction
We suspected that relative humidity had an effect on water loss in live Armadillidium vulgare, to test this we did an experiment with them in desiccators set with different relative humidity’s. Armadillidium vulgare (isopod) or pill bug need a habitat with a damp surface so that they do not dry out and die. To keep them from dying when we are not using them in experiments they are kept in a container that is full of soil with the top layer moist and with a wet paper towel for them. One way that they will protect themselves from predators and water loss is buy rolling up into a little ball (Smigel and Gibbs, 2008???). Desiccators are used because we can …show more content…
Next we weighed out twelve Armadillidium vulgare and placed them into the individual tubes and recorded their weight with their number. 1-4 were our controls and were left out on the table, 5-8 we placed into a desiccator at 0% relative humidity and 9-12 were placed into a desiccator at 100% relative humidity. We weighed them after two hours and then placed them right back into the desiccators for another two hours then weighed them for their final weight.
Results
We saw changes in the weights of the Armadillidium vulgare over the four-hour period, we can see some changes even at two hours. Looking at table 1 it seems the most weight was lost in the larger Armadillidium vulgare and at the lower relative humidity. Our findings are supported by Smigel and Gibbs (2008) findings that in Armadillidium vulgare water-loss declined as relative humidity increased and larger individuals lost water faster than smaller ones. Figure 1: Relative humidity’s effect on the weight of Armadillidium vulgare over four hours
Isopod # Initial Mass (g) Mass @ 2hrs (g) Mass @ 4 total hrs (g) Mass lost