Evan Lok

Donald Wang
Jay Zhou
Sept 18
Biology 12 Pill Bug Lab

Purpose:

We attempt to observe some aspects of pill bug behaviour, from response to environment to
differentiating whether pill bugs use kinesis or taxis movement. In this lab our independant variable will
be a heat source located on one side of the choice chamber. What type of behaviour will the pill bugs
exhibit when having to differentiate between a warm or cold environment?

Introduction/Background Information:

Pill bugs are a type of isopod normally found in dark, moist areas such as under bushes and logs
in damp soil. Therefore our choice chamber consists of their optimal environment besides the
independant variable heat, which is controlled by us. Heat will be given off by a warm hot pack placed
under one side of the choice chamber and lack of heat being controlled by several ice cubes placed
inside the opposite side of the choice chamber. 10-15 pill bugs shall be placed more or less in the central
area of the choice chamber.

Hypothesis:

Pill bugs are found in a dark and moist environment, which is naturally a cool environment. If we
were to give pill bugs choice between one of a warm, moist, dark environment or a cool, moist, and dark
environment we reason that the pill bug wills prefer the latter as that is the environment they are most
typically found.

Materials:

o 1 cardboard box/pieces of extra cardboard

o Damp soil
o Hot and cold pack
o 10-15 pill bugs
Procedure:

 Narrow down the center of the box by bending the cardboard pieces and sticking them in the
box so it looks like an hour glass.
 Place hot and cold pack on either end of choice chamber.
 Wait a minute for the heat to transfer in and out of the choice chamber, then place Pill bugs in
choice chambers.
 Observe pill bugs every 30 seconds for10 minute.
 Graph number of pill bugs using graph 11.1.
Observations:
 Time(min) # of bugs in # of bugs in Other Notes
Warm Cool chamber
Chamber
0 8 5 Pill bugs like the corners of the box, some are just nestled
around the cardboard cutouts that we placed in the
center to separate the two choice chambers
.5 6 7
1 9 4
1.5 7 6 Several pill bugs have dug down into the soil.
2 7 6
2.5 7 6 The pill bugs on the warm side seem to move a little
more, if only to try and get out of the box. The bugs on
the cold side seem to move less
3 6 7
3.5 6 7
4 6 7
4.5 6 7
5 7 6
5.5 4 9 A couple of the big ones are very active
6 4 9
6.5 5 8
7 5 8
7.5 5 8
8 5 8
8.5 5 8
9 6 7
9.5 6 7
10 6 7 At this point we tested the dirt in the warm chamber and
it was much drier than its cold counterpart

Conclusion/Discussion:
Based on preliminary knowledge of the pill bugs habitat. We hypothesized that the pill bugs
preferred environment would be a cold or cool one. To test this theory we devised a choice chamber out
of cardboard box and an almost normal pill bug environment, moist dirt and little light. Our independant
variable, heat would be controlled using a heat pack and ice cubes, placed under the opposing choice
chambers. From our observation data, we can see that at the end of the 10 min the majority of the pill
bugs had not much preferred either the warm or cold chamber. In fact, several of them dug down to the
first corner/side of the box they came to and refused to move for the rest of the experiment. The ones
on the warm side of the box do seem slightly more active, they were more active in their attempts to
escape by climbing up the sides of the choice chamber. Like most cold blooded creatures we can say
that the these pill bugs will react more actively when placed in a warmer environment. However we
cannot say whether the pill bugs preferred either the cold or warm side of the choice chamber. Perhaps
that as long as the pill bugs do not stray into an environment that’s either too hot or too cold then there
preferred option is to hunker down and conserve moisture. Indeed if we were to have left the pill bugs
there for another good 10 min perhaps the pill bugs would have had incentive to move from the drier
side of the choice chamber, providing that we did not moisten the dirt to the colder side of the choice
chamber. At the same time we could see that our choice chamber was also too large and perhaps was
too large a space for the pill bugs to distinguish between the hot and cold sides. If we were to do this
experiment again, we’d probably take more time to construct a thinner smaller box and attempt the lab
in a darker room. Although the results of our lab may not be clear, we can say that the pill bugs do not
mind a warmer or colder environment, contrary to our hypothesis, as long as its within certain
temperature bounds(we lit a piece of wood on fire and moved it towards a pill bug and it ran like mad).
The pill bugs instead, place more importance on the amount of moisture that accompanies
temperature, perhaps in choosing the colder side pill bugs would be more likely to survive considering
that colder areas are more likely to retain moisture than warm areas.