Week Four Assignment

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Richland Community College *

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MISC

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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docx

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WEEK FOUR ASSIGNMENT Overview: This week, I would like for you to read some primary literature on insect behavior, focusing on one of everyone’s favorite insect groups: dung beetles. The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about experimental design and how scientists often design studies so that there are multiple experiments that together paint a compelling enough picture to determine whether a hypothesis is accurate or not. You might recall that we discussed some aspects of this paper at the beginning of this class, and now is the chance for you to go a little more in-depth with the paper. Instructions: Please read the full article by Dacke et al. and answer the following questions. 1. How does the length of the path taken by a beetle when it can (versus cannot) see the sky provide evidence of whether or not beetles are using the Milky Way to navigate? In other words, what is the relationship between the total distance traveled and the beetles’ use of the Milky Way? The path taken by the beetle that could see the starry light or the Milky Way is significantly different from the path taken be the beetle that could not see the starlit sky. In another word, Beetles that were allowed to observed the starlit night moved in a straighter and faster pathway than the beetles that were not allowed to see the night sky. Based on the article, the length of a beetles that were prevented from seeing the sky was 476.7 considered to the beetles that could see the night sky was 207.9. 2. In addition to putting opaque caps on beetles, the researchers also tried using clear caps. What was the purpose of using the clear caps? Please answer this in your own words (rather than using words from the paper). The researcher attempted to set up the experiment, which determine whether the dung beetles utilized the moonlight or starry light to navigate their path. By covering the sky (moon, starry light), the beetles’ pathways could certainly strengthen their hypothesis of beetles using the night sky (moon, starry light) to navigate.

3. In another experiment in the paper, the researchers placed the beetles in an elevated arena, and used the time until a “particular event” happened as the response in their experiment. What was the event, and why was the time until this event occurred used as a response in this experiment? There were three different sky conditions: the moonlit sky, the clear moonless sky (with or without caps), and the overcast sky. The time that the events occurred were different so that the researchers could explain and understand the dung beetles travelling behaviors better. 4. In the planetarium experiment, the researchers compared how the beetles performed under “the full projection of the starry sky (including the Milky Way)” to “only the Milky Way”. What was the purpose of this specific comparison? In other words, why did the researchers compare these two specific situations? In my opinion, the researchers attempted to establish and prove their hypothesis of how dung beetles utilizing the Milky Way to navigate their ways. In facts, the amounts of time the dung beetles take to exit the area were the same in both situations. By comparing the full projection of the starry sky and only the Milky Way, the researcher could differentiate the amount of time the dung beetles take to exit the area, or in facts the beetles only travel based on the Milky Way.

5. Are you convinced that these beetles are using the Milky Way to navigate? Do you have any alternative explanations for the findings of the study? After reading the article, I believe the dung beetles mainly utilized the Milky Way as a compass or navigator for their travel. However, there were other means for them to travel, and this article is another theory that lead us closer to understand the animal kingdom.

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