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Pill Bug Research Paper

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Armadillidium vulgare are commonly known as pill-bug. Pill-bugs belong to the kingdom Animalia and are classified as Malacostraca. Belonging to the order of Isopoda, they belong to the Armadillidiidae family, and classified into the genus Armadillidium. A. vulgare are found in soil with a preference to moist environment (Holland 2014). This species see with ommatidia, smell using esthetascs, and touch with tactile setae to sense their environment (Holland 2014). Migita and Moriyama (2004) declare that in unknown environments, animal behaves inappropriately by expressing their innate or learned behavioral patterns. A. vulgare are often found constantly moving around the edge of the Petri dish because the environment is unfamiliar and appears as an obstacle (Migita and Moriyama 2004). One observation of pill bug’s movement is when they follow each other. Males can detect females through distance chemical communication (Beauché and Richard 2013). Due to aggregation pheromone, the A. vulgare are attracted to each other. Unlike other isopods, A. vulgare locomotor activity is presence in the morning and the species exhibit positive phototaxis when temperature increase (Cloudsley-Thompson 1952). Cloudsley-Thompson (1952) also found that response to light is greater when the species have been in the darkness. Refinetti (2000) found …show more content…

vulgare when exposed to different colored light environment. The study reveals that in the presence of white light environment, A. vulgare are more active. On the other hand, they are least active in the blue light environment. The results also contradict the prediction because the control group contains more kinesis than the red light group. While the white light resembles daylight, blue light with the lowest wavelength out of the treatments cause the lowest circadian rhythm in A.

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