An Experiment of Adaptation Lab Report Essay Example

vial full of flies with vestigial wings into the box, then tightly secure the vial in the hole on top of the box, make sure that there are not any flies getting out.

There should not be any banana at the food site. Give one minute for the vestigial flies to get use to the box environment. After one minute, count how many vestigial flies have entered the food site. Next, wait for two minutes, and then count how many vestigial flies have entered the food site during that time interval. After this, place a portion of banana inside the food site, and the same procedure applies.

Dedicate one minute for the vestigial flies to get use to the new change of environment, and then count how many vestigial flies are at the food site. Afterwards, wait for two minutes and count again. Repeat this whole procedure for a second trial of vestigial flies. Replicate this experiment for flies with normal wings. Data/Results: The data presented here is the average of two trials.

The hypothesis of more normal flies will be at the food site than the vestigial flies was not supported by this set of data.When banana is absent, the number of flies with normal wings at the food site is distinctly higher than the number of flies with vestigial wings as explained by figure 3. At the end of three minutes and when banana is present, in trial one, there are zero normal flies are the food site; in trial two, there are four flies at the food site. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 On the other hand, when banana is absent, there

are three normal flies at the food site for trial one, and there are two flies in trial two. As for the vestigial flies, no flies entered the food site when banana is absent for the two trials.Zero vestigial flies entered the food site after three minutes during trial one, and four for trial two.

Analysis: Drosophila melanogaster is used in this experiment because they have very simple behavior, “they are easily drawn towards the smell of any food source, and will mate almost indiscriminately with any individual of the opposite sex” (Miller). Therefore, these flies will exert easy observable behaviors. In this experiment, time was a liming factor, thus the observed time for each group of flies and trials were limited.Another factor that could change the result of this experiment could be the kind of fruit.

Banana is the only fruit used in this experiment to keep the results simple, but the flies could be more attracted to the kinds of fruit. Besides these factors, errors are a source of causing possible difference in data. Errors such as the smell of banana from the previous trial had confused the flies, the flies needed more time to get use to the box environment, and more time is needed for flies to response to the smell of the banana.The hypothesis of more flies with normal wings will be at the food site than the flies with vestigial wings was not supported by the data of this experiment. Figure three falsifies this hypothesis, but supports the idea that wing ability is not a factor for flies when they are seeking food. Figure two shows that number of

vestigial flies at the food site when food is absent is distinctly smaller then the number of normal flies when food is presents which suggest the flies were confined to the bottom of the box.

Though, the vestigial flies were able to crawl to the food site after smelling the food which support by figure three. On the other hand, figure one shows that overall numbers of flies with normal wings were equally at the food site regardless of food which could suggest that the normal flies were not hungry. This is possible because vestigial flies and normal flies came from two different cultures. In conclusion, wing abnormality does not reduce the chances of fruit flies seeking for food. References: Miller C. 2000.

Drosophila melanogaster. Animal Diversity Web. http://animaldiversity. ummz. umich. edu/site/accounts/information/Drosophila_melanogaster.

html. in University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, http://ummz. umich. edu Molumby A, and Murray D, (2007) Adventures in Populations and Communities. Stipes Publishing. Champaign, Illinois.

Thomas B. Brody. 1997. Drosophila.

The Interactive Fly. Version 01 July 1997. http://www. sdbonline. org/fly/newgene/vestigl1.

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