Lab termite

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Biology

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Jan 9, 2024

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Madeline Urban BIO155-008 Madhu Pondiche Srinivasan Termites Temptation to Walk on an Ink Drawn Line Introduction: When on a scavenge through the woods, some students have observed several termites landing on a paper they were carrying on their journey. After seeing exactly where the termites had landed, these students noted the location and where the termites were attracted to most and moving along that area. Visibly, the students could see, and developed a central question, stating “Why are the termites following our ink drawings?”. Since the features of termites are small, and termites don’t have very high functioning eyes, they solely rely on the pheromones which help direct them along such ink lines and trail leading behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this lab was to identify and to determine if termites prefer the smell and pheromones left by ink, or an indentation made by additional utensils such as pencils, that were also used to draw a said line. Throughout, there was preliminary trials conducted, this was to finally narrow down what color ink, these termites were most drawn to. During this process, multiple lines on a piece of paper were drawn and these colors were black, blue, and red ink. Since the trials revealed that black ink was favorited, the trials also led us to hypothesize that black ink best portrays the termites’ pheromones, and further trials would need to take place. As a group, we hypothesized that a termie would follow the black ink drawn line rather than other colored or pencil utensils drawn lines. Methods: The first step my group made in this experiment was to gather to proper supplies needed to further conduct the experiment, this included a black ballpoint ink pen, 4 sheets of copy paper,

four termites, the path template sheet, a standard pencil, and 2 additional colored pencils. Next, as follows, the template was used to properly trace the correct path the sheet described us to do as. We drew 2 lines om each sheet of paper, one being drawn with the ink pen, and the other with the pencil. After the lines were drawn, a small brush was used to place the termite properly at the starting point of the paths. Next, timing was an important factor, so a 2 minute timer was started once the termite hit the sheet of paper for each of the trials made. A stopwatch was simultaneously ran, with the timer, so we were able to track how long the termite would had spent within +_ 2 centimeters away from the line specifically, to measure how long the termite realistically spent on the line. After repeating this process 4 times, with a new termite on each piece of paper and or path, until we had times for all 4 termites. To make sure treatment order bias was eliminated, each termite was started on a line that began on an opposite side of the paper. Lastly, another step our group had used to eliminate bias, was generally using a different sheet of paper and additionally, a new termite for each trial taken. Discussion: A paired t-test was crucial for this experiment to calculate the p-value of the experiment. We calculated the p-value to be less than 0.001 (p<0.0001). With that being said, this led our class discussion’s conclusion to be that we need to reject the null hypothesis as there happened to be a positive correlation found between black ink and time spent on the line by the termites. As a result, the mean and standard deviation of the pen were 79.0475+_28.8871 seconds and the mean and standard deviation of the pencil were, 14.9766+_6.08755902 seconds. Afterall, the standard error of the pen itself was 5.1066 and of the pencil it was 3.0956. There were several reasons as to why the ballpoint ink pen is preferred by the many different termites, is because the pen releases a similar pheromone to also which termites use to navigate surroundings and obstacles.

Since termites do not have eyes, so they rely on the scent of another termite. This trail following certain behavior made by termites is important to evolution as it allows the termites to be able to follow scents, such as wood, rather than solely relying on features such as sight. Since smell is a much more acquired sense than eyesight and visibility might be, it makes it reasonable for an animal to be a scent based and oriented organism. Refrences: Kershner, Ariel M., “Termite Trail-Following Behavior Elicited by Ballpoint Pen Ink” (2018). Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works. 49. https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/undergad_works/49 Srinivasan M. P. 2017. BIO 155 Lecture, Lab 2, 3. University of Kentucky, USA.

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