Experimental design on how to investigate the innate behaviour of woodlice Introduction - Essay Example

On the other hand, taxis behaviour is a behaviour in which an animal orients itself in an absolute direction in response to environment stimulus.2 Woodlice belong to the crustacean class. Most of these animals are terrestrial species and aquatic. It is believed that they exhibit an innate behaviour in that they tend to stay in wet and dark environment because they lack the characteristic waxy skeleton on their ex-skeleton like does most of the arthropods, thus tend to lose water easily when in dry conditions ()3.

Woodlice are also good examples of organisms that orient themselves to humidity through kinesis. Woodlice also exhibit negative phototaxis. They have ocelli (light receptors). As a result, they do make directed movement away from illumination into the dark areas. They increase their locomotory activity in dry areas. However, this activity is decreased in humid conditions and for this reason they tend to accumulate in areas of high humidity.4 As indicated earlier, woodlice prefer wet and dark environment.

Consequently, they increase their locomotory activities in dry areas and reduce their movement in humid areas. For this reason it would be expected that the number of woodlice will be greater int the more humid and dark areas. Then, the tray will be covered to exclude natural light and retain the humid moisture. The tray will be placed in a sheltered location free from direct sunlight. The lighting will be achieved through the use of a stand lamp placed at the same position and distance from the trays throughout the experiment.

The distance will be reasonable to prevent transferring heat to the trays. Repeat the above procedures, but this time covering the tray with a perforated aluminium foil in order to create a dark environment, remove the stand lamp and then record the results after 30 minutes Table