Pill Bug – College Essay Example
Pill Bug – College Essay Example

Pill Bug – College Essay Example

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Assessment The structural features of the pill bug allows it to have advantages over other organisms. The pillbugs multi-segmented body allows it to roll into a ball if it feels threatened or in danger in order to protect its self. Another advantage of have a multi-segmented body is it allows the pillbug to semi curl to flip its self back over if it is knocked down. The antennae is used to sense the environment around it, even if it is in ball shape form. The advantages of this is the pillbug will know whether or not it is safe to come out of its ball shape form, if it had been threatened earlier.

The antennae also allows the pillbugs to send signals to one another, it is a source of communication between them. The color of the pill bugs can be extremely

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useful because they become hard to find when in its natural environment. Pillbugs are a dark grey color, since they live in dark places and in the soil, it becomes harder for them to be preyed upon. Every feature of the pillbug provides some sort of protection as well as advantages to the organism itself. The purpose of the experiment in part B is to maintain a control for the other experiments that would take place to the pillbugs.

If it weren’t for this experiment there would be nothing to compare our experiments to the pillbugs to. I expected the numbers to be random since I wasn’t testing anything, I was just observing how they reacted to the light and the new environment. Since there wasn’t anything being tested I figured that the pillbugs woul

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just be curious about the new environment that they were in, this new environment is what I believe caused their movement to be random. This randomness is what made my control and made it easy to compare it to the other data that was collected.

After testing my hypothesis in part C, I found out that my conclusions did agree with my hypothesis. I had hypothesized that the pill bug would be drawn towards the dark since its natural environment is in the dark. However, I would need to test the factors more than once to get accurate data on the movement of the pillbugs. From just one experiment it seems that the pillbugs were indifferent to the dark, except on one or two occasions they favored the dark . Multiple tests would ensure that the data is accurate and my conclusions would fully support my hypothesis.

If I had to create a terrarium to maintain some pillbugs in I would include objects as well as food that are in their natural habitat. For example I would add slightly acidic soil since it what they live in, and I would also add various sized rocks for which they could hid under. Pillbugs are relatively easy to feed since they eat decaying leaves, rotting trees, and rotting vegetables. So for their food they only require very little, they also eat their own feces in order to maintain a constant copper intake which they need to survive.

For this reason pill bugs don’t require an excessive amount of food. Pillbugs like all living organisms need water to maintain life. So I would keep the soil moist as well as a

little water bowl if necessary; however, pillbugs can receive water from the ground, food and other sources like leaves. The terrarium would also include a lower temperature since the pillbugs natural environment is in a cool, damp place. Everything included would ensure that the pillbugs will have the best chance of survival. I would describe the pillbugs’ response to moisture as taxis instead of kinetic.

When an organism has a taxis response it either moves towards or away from a stimulus. While a kinetic reaction is a completely random movement from a stimulus. The pillbugs reaction is taxis because if there is to much of it they will hide or move away from it. However if it comfortable enough for living conditions the pillbugs will move towards it. They tend to prefer environments that are moist , making it a taxis reaction to the stimulus of moisture. School fish testing if they will react to temperature or ph values

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