Beetles
Introduction: At the beginning of the fall semester, ecology 3500 took part in an experiment counting Tribolium castaneum, or flour beetles in controlled environmental conditions. ... So why was this experiment done with beetles? Beetles are inexpensive and they do not need much care to survive. ... These beetles reproduce very quickly and if left unattended they can destroy packaged foods and take out a farmers grain harvest in a short period of time. ... From this background information about beetles two hypotheses can be deduced. ... Methods: From August 19 to November 6, a population growth experiment using beetles was conducted inside the ecology shed behind the ecology building on the campus of the University of Georgia. We were split up into three or four membered groups and given six plastic pint containers with lids that held four, eight or twelve beetles. ... For the remainder of the semester, fourteen weeks, we were asked to count the number of beetles in each container one day a week. The count included numbers of live and dead beetles. Counting the beetles took place in counting trays to spread the beetles out for a more accurate count. At the end of each counting session, the numbers of live beetles were recorded into a logbook to keep record of the beetle counts for the fourteen weeks of the semester. ... In every container the mean number or average number of beetles in the beginning was four, eight or twelve. Throughout the thirteen-week period that the beetles were counted, the beetle populations grew. ... The first is out of the 168 containers, two containers that contained four beetles with low quality food and five containers that contained four beetles with high quality food showed no reproduction.