Materials and Methods.
In order to carry out this experiment we used the Biology 202 Lab Manual (Ross, 2002) for general procedure. We first investigated the importance of aggregation in the isopod Armadillidium vulgare. In order to do this we acquired fifteen healthy isopods from our lab instructor. We then separated five individuals, and left the remaining ten in contact with each other, for a total of six dishes of isopods. Having done this, we weighed each of the five individuals alone, and the remaining ten in one dish, and recorded their initial masses. We then placed all six containers in a desiccator; a container with a low level of humidity, and constantly circulating air. We started a timer when we first put the isopods in the desiccator and we weighed the animals at fifteen, thirty, sixty, ninety, and one hundred twenty minutes, recording the masses at each time interval. After collecting this data, it was submitted to the lab instructor, who combined and averaged the class's data for the aggregate group, and separately the data for the individuals. We then went on to research the behavior of these animals under various different circumstances. .
In order to study the preference of Armadillidium vulgare to moist or dry conditions we first acquired ten healthy specimens. We then made a dish consisting of a wet paper towel and a dry paper towel on opposite sides of a large dish, and separated in the middle by aluminum foil. We put the ten isopods onto the aluminum foil in the middle of the dish, and let them move around as they pleased. After ten or fifteen minutes we recorded the positions of the animals in terms of whether they were on the moist towel or on the dry. We repeated the experiment an additional four times to verify our results. We then proceeded to carry out one more experiment to determine what level of moistness isopods prefer.
We obtained another fifteen healthy specimens of the isopod Armadillidium vulgare and made three separate dishes.
