Understanding woodlice preferences.
Every living thing behaves differently from other living creatures. To understand the creatures around us we need to study how they behave. This experiment will help you learn about woodlice habits and preferences.
You will need:
- Woodlice
- Shoe boxes
- Cardboard from cereal packets
- Cooking foil
- Cotton wool
- Water
- Red and green food colouring
- Sugar
- A wired up energy saving bulb
- Pieces of plastic hosing with a wide lumen
- Kitchen towels
- Four large bowls
- Sticky tape
- A pair of scissors
And last but not least ... a helping hand from an adult.
We want your feedback!
Have you tried the experiment?
Do you have comments?
Do you need any help?
Contact us at feedback@xlab.tv and tell us about it!
Method
Step 1: Preparing the boxes
To study the preferences of woodlice, you have to let them choose between two sets of conditions and see which they prefer. You can do this by building boxes with a partition in the middle, where one half of the box will have a different condition to that in the other half. Each box is used to test only one condition, for example, to see if woodlice prefer light or darkness. In this experiment you will test four sets of conditions to discover what the woodlice prefer.
First you need to prepare the shoe boxes. First measure the width and the height of the box and draw a rectangle using these measurements onto a piece of cardboard. Then measure the width of the hose and draw a vertical strip of the same width along the middle of the rectangle. Cut out the cardboard rectangle and remove the strip in the middle. You should end up with two smaller cardboard rectangles. Cut the hose at about one centimetre or so shorter than the height of the shoebox. Using some sticky tape fix the hose between the two pieces of cardboard instead of the stripe of card that you removed. The hose has to be about a centimetre or so away from the base of the rectangle.
This is the partition that will split the box into two compartments. Take this partition and fix it inside the box with tape, from one side to the other, in the middle of the box. Staple cardboard sections of the same height of the box in the 4 corners created in each of the two compartments since woodlice like huddling together and corners will naturally make them accumulate. Then line the box with cooking foil, so that when you introduce water the boxes do not get wet.
Step 2: Creating different conditions in boxes
Now you need to create different conditions in the boxes. Here are a few ideas:
Box 1: First wet some cotton wool, squeeze out the excess water, and line the bottom of the box with it. Place a paper napkin over the cotton wool on both sidesso that the woodlice can move around more easily. Cut the lid in half and place a non-heating light bulb on one side to provide light. The other half should be in darkness.
Box 2: Place wet cotton wool in one section and dry cotton wool in the other section. Cover the cotton wool with paper napkins.
Box 3: Place cotton wool soaked in water with some drops of green food colouring in one section and cotton wool soaked in water with a few drops of red food colouring in the other section. Do not cover the cotton wool with paper napkins so that the colour can be “seen” by the woodlice.
Box 4: Line the bottom of one section with cotton wool soaked in water, and cotton wool soaked in sugary water in the other section. Do not cover the cotton wool with paper napkins so the woodlice can “taste”.
Step 3: Observing the woodlice
Place a number of woodlice in each box. With care drop them one by one through the hose in between the two conditions, close the test chambers and wait for about half an hour. Which conditions do the woodlice prefer:
- Light or dark?
- Wet or dry?
- Green or red?
- Plain water or sugary water?
Now that the experiment is over, it is very important that you return the woodlice to where you got them, without harming them.