Isopoda

Purpose The purpose of this lab is to investigate animal behaviors by diving into the world of ethology. There are two ways pill bugs will respond to environmental stimuli: Kinesis (non-directional response) and taxis (directional response). Kinesis occurs when organisms (randomly) move around quickly when they’re unhappy and slowly when they’re happy, which is best demonstrated when one lifts up a rock or other material that the pill bugs are under. In contrast to the simpler response that does not necessarily involve many neurons, taxis is often observed in response to changes in light, heat, moisture, sound, and/or chemicals (odor). This would be considered a directional response. A total of three trials will be conducted to observe the effects of environmental factors on pill bug behavior: A wet side versus a dry side, a side with DI water versus one with concentrated salt water, and dry soil versus damp soil. Materials • Choice chamber • 30 pill bugs • Paper towels • Plastic pipette • DI water • NaCl (s) • Soil • Stopwatch/Timer • Phone (for taking pictures) Procedure 1. Place paper towels on both sides of the choice chamber. 2. Add DI water to side B until the towel is damp (Trial 1). 3. Split the pill bugs evenly between both sides of the chamber and record down observations of the crustaceans during the 10-minute period while also noting the number on each side of the chamber every 30 seconds. Take pictures as needed. 4. Add concentrated NaCl (aq) to side A until…

Isopods are interesting creatures that have been decided to experiment upon as the test subjects. However, the term isopods, generally refers to the order Isopda but to be more specific pill bugs are a subcaterogy. Therefore, the classification for them are the family Armadillidiidae, which means that they have the ability to conglobate/curl into a ball, acting as a defense mechanism for them if and when they are in danger. Additionally, the best known and most investigated is Armadillidium…

decreased over the years. The Mississinewa River also has a decreasing p-score. The third river, Pigeon River, is decreasing in its p-score as well. However, at the end of the data for each river, the p-score has spiked up. Figure 3. P-scores of 3 Indiana Rivers. Over the years, each river has decreased in their P-scores. Figure 4 below shows the number of macroinvertebrates found at the number of sites. There were no significantly different amount of the invertebrates in seasonal and…

The purpose of this experiment was to be able to identify certain substances that the Armadillidium vulgare is attracted to or would be likely to move towards. The substances were three different liquids and three different solids. Another purpose of the lab was to learn the characteristics of an Armadillidium vulgare also known as a pillbug (Mader, 2013). The main topic was based on whether the pillbug would be attracted to certain substances, and the reason they’re attracted to it. The…