A Bug’s Life



A Bug’s Life

Essential Question: Can you collect accurate scientific data? Can you identify the category your “bug” belongs in?

Introductory Information: You are a biologist living in the jungles of Borneo. A local has just brought you the insect that is in front of you now. You have never seen this organism before and you don’t know where the local person found it. You aren’t sure, but this might be a new species of organism that no one has ever found before.

Hypothesis: Write an If…Then statement that includes what is needed to collect accurate scientific information.

Procedure:

1. Make a data table under the heading “Data”, similar to the one below.

2. Use a ruler, balance, etc. to record the information in the table for three different “bugs.” Choose one of the bugs and make a list of as many physical and behavioral characteristics as you can (a minimum of 5.) Record this information in a list below your data table.

3. As part of the data section of your lab, draw your bug. It has three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen.) Label each of the three parts. These bugs do not have lungs, rather, they breathe through tiny openings in the abdomen along each side. Draw them on your diagram and label them “spiracles.” Spiracles are small holes used to collect air for oxygen and to expel carbon dioxide. This particular bug is also unique because it can use the spiracles for defense. When threatened, this bug forces air out of the spiracles all at once causing a hissing sound. The sound drives away enemies.

Data: Your chart, observations, and drawing.

“Bug” Data

|Bug |Bug Length |Bug width |Bug and Jar Mass |Empty Jar Mass |Bug Mass |Bumps on Head |Fuzzy Antennae |

|1 | | | | | | | |

|2 | | | | | | | |

|3 | | | | | | | |

|Average | | | | | |NA |NA |

Analysis:

Biologists have developed a system for putting living things into categories. To be “alive” it is generally agreed five characteristics need to be met. They are as follows: Living things must: 1. Reproduce. 2. Grow and develop. 3. Respond to the environment (homeostasis.) 4. Be made of cells. 5. Obtain and use energy.

The system for organizing living things divides all living organisms into five or six major groups based on physical characteristics and behavior (even scientists disagree about a few things.) These large groups are called kingdoms. The kingdoms are Monera (single-celled, little cell organization), Protista (single-celled with a more cell organization), Fungi (multi-celled, plant-like, absorbs its food), Plantae (multi-celled, makes its own food), and Animalia (multi-celled, ingests its food, able to move.)

The kingdoms get divided even further. The group in which this “bug” fits is one of the following six: millipedes, centipedes (many jointed body segments), horseshoe crabs (2 body segments, 5 pairs of legs, fangs), spiders (2 body segments, 4 pairs of legs, fangs), insects (3 body segments, 3 pairs of legs), and crustaceans, like crabs, shrimp, and lobsters (2 body segments, 5 pairs of legs.)

1. Give at least three reasons why you think this creature might be alive, be as specific as possible.

2. What kingdom do you think your bug is in? Explain why?

3. Which smaller group do you think your creature belongs in? List the reasons for your decision.

4. What is a spiracle? How are they used by the Hissing Cockroach for self-defense?

This cockroach is a tropical variety that does not occur naturally in the United States. It does not fly, but rather lives in decaying logs or under debris in the forests of Madagascar, coming out only at night to eat. Its name is the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach. Adult males often hiss when fighting for the right to breed with a female or during mating.

The sex of the Madagascan Hissing Cockroach can be determined by looking at the thorax. Both males and females have lumps on the thorax that are called “horns.” These horns are much larger on the males than the females. Cockroaches have long thin hair-like projections from the head called antennae which are used to sense odors, motion, and temperature. Males have hairs growing on their antennae, giving them a fuzzy look. Females do not have these hairs.

5. Go back and review your data. What was the sex of each of your cockroaches?

The skeleton of the cockroach is external and made of a hard material similar to your fingernails called chitin (ki-tin.) As they grow, young cockroaches shed this external skeleton periodically and grow a new one. The young roach is almost pure white when this occurs, and vary vulnerable to attack until the new shell hardens.

6. Simpler animals, like cockroaches, have external skeletons while more advanced animals have internal skeletons. How is having an external skeleton a disadvantage? How might it be an advantage?

The heart of the cockroach is in the abdomen and is a simple tube that pumps blood into the rest of the body without any veins or arteries. Food eaten by cockroaches (which is almost anything) is mixed with saliva and sent to a stomach-like organ called the gizzard which has its own “teeth” that break down the food for digestion. Waste is released through organs called the Malpighian tubes, mixed with water and deposited through the anus as small pellets of feces. The roach also has an organ called a fat body, which fills most of the abdomen. It is used to store food energy for later use. Cockroaches can go as long as six weeks without eating and two weeks without drinking water.

The cockroach has two “brains” that are really just collections of nerve cells. One of these in the head and the other is in the abdomen. Nerve impulses travel 10 times faster in the roach than they do in humans. The sensation of air flowing as you swing a rolled up newspaper is enough to get a roach moving well out of the way before you ever strike.

7. Explain three ways the cockroach is different internally than humans.

The most prolific of roaches produces 15 batches of babies in a year. Each batch contains approximately 40 babies. Reproduction begins when the female produces a chemical called pheromone that attracts the male, much like wearing perfume. The male and female then rub antennae together before mating occurs. The female climbs on top of the male, they connect sexual organs then the female then climbs around the male to end up facing backwards. They may stay connected in this manner for an hour or more until the male’s sperm is deposited into the female.

8. How many baby cockroaches can be produced by one female in a year? Assuming half of the babies are female, how many roaches would be produced in the next year? Show your work!!!

Cockroaches are one of the oldest living remnants of our ancient ancestors. Fossil records show cockroaches existing as far back as 340 million years ago. Most of the earth was wet and warm--ideal conditions for cockroaches. The fact that cockroaches have been around so long is a tribute their ability to adapt and survive under even the harshest of conditions. The word cockroach comes about by a misunderstanding nearly 400 years ago. The Greeks called all pests blattae or, light fearing pests. In 1624, Captain John Smith, while in the Virginia Colonies, wrote about a bug called Cacarootch by the Spaniards. Smith misheard the word, which actually was cucarachas, meaning contemptible caterpillar. The word became cock-roche by the 1800’s and finally Charles Darwin used the word cockroach in his famous book Origin of Species in 1859.

9. How old is the cockroach in terms of earth history? Why do you suppose they have been so successful?

10. Why is cucarachas not an accurate name for the cockroach?

Cockroaches are eating machines. Studies show they prefer carbohydrates and sugars over fats and proteins. Roaches have been known to eat book bindings for the glue used in them, water color paints, and even eyelashes. They will eat smaller insects as well as one another. Getting rid of cockroaches often involves getting rid of the food source they are looking for. A clean home is the best deterrent. One of the best ways to get rid of cockroaches is to have house geckos, a small lizard that clings to the walls, run throughout the house. These warmth loving, nocturnal lizards eat the roaches like they were candy.

11. What specific foods might cockroaches particularly love?

12. How might you go about getting rid of roaches in your home? How might you keep them from coming back?

The cockroach is feared by many, hated by some, and loved by a few. They have been portrayed in movies like Men in Black and The Nest as vile killers. They have been written about in books by the likes of Franz Kafka and have had their say in Cartoons like The Far Side and Bloom County.

Whether you like them or not, cockroaches are probably here to stay. So, you might as well make friends

Conclusion:

Use your rubric.

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