School Science Lessons
2024-10-27
(UNBiol2)
Animal Kingdom
Please send comments to: j.elfick@uq.edu.au
Contents
Animals
9.30 Animal traps
9.31 Animal cages
9.32 Food and water for animals
9.33.0 Earthworm behaviour, (Lumbricus sp.)
9.33.1 Smart worm farm
9.36 Flatworms, (Dugesia), (Planaria)
9.37.0 Arthropod parasitic diseases
9.9.0 Daphnia, water flea
9.37.2 Fluke diseases, trematode diseases, (Class Trematoda)
9.37.3 Nematode diseases
9.37.4 Protozoan diseases
9.37.5 Tapeworm diseases, (Class Cestoda)
9.10.0 Life cycle of a frog
9.25 Simple cage
4.06 Snake bite
Birds
9.1 Bird beaks
9.2 Bird feet
9.4 Bird nests
9.5 Bird houses
9.7 Birds in your garden
9.3 Casts of bird footprints
9.6 Feeders to attract birds
Insects
9.9.3 Insect abdomen
9.27 Insect behaviour diary
9.8.0 Insect body, cockroach or grasshopper
9.29 Insect catcher
9.19 Insect collecting
9.20 Insect collecting nets, air net, sweep net
9.9.1 Insect head, the neck is flexible in predators, e.g. praying mantis
9.21 Insect killing container
9.22 Insect stretching board (setting board)
9.9.2 Insect thorax
9.26 Insectarium
9.24 Mounting block guide
9.23 Mounting boxes for insect collections
9.28 Night insects
Ants
9.34.3 Ant study
9.34.4 Ant pests
9.34.5 Black ant, (Dolichoderus thoracicus)
9.34.2 Crazy ants, (Anoplolepsis longipes), Biological control using crazy ants
9.34.1 Flying ants and termites
9.34.6 Green tree ant, (Oecophylla smaragdina)
Honeybee
9.1.8 Honeybee body structure, (Apis mellifera)
9.1.7 Honeybee life cycle, (Apis mellifera)
9.1.9 Honeybee, Notes on Australian native Bees, by Mandy, Nimbin Natural Beekeepers
Honey, (Chemistry)
.
4.06 Snake bite
If you are bitten by a snake, tie a bandage about the wound and get somebody to take you to hospital without delay.
Note the following rules:
1. Keep still, otherwise the snake venom will spread quicker through your body.
2. Apply a tight pressure bandage to the area bitten, with the same tension as a bandage for a sprain.
3. Telephone triple 0, or the local hospital or doctor.
4. Keep still and wait for help.
Do not go anywhere to get help.
5. Do not try to kill the snake for identification.
6. Do not wash the wound caused by the snake bite, because doctors may want to analyse the snake poison before giving you the antivenom (antivenin, antivenene).
7. Do not use a tourniquet, because it can cause more damage.
.
8. Do not cut or suck the wound made by the snake bite, because this may introduce venom into the bloodstream.
9. Do not drink, eat or take any medicine, even if you are in pain.
9.1.7 Honeybee life cycle, Apis mellifera
A colony of honeybees contains a female queen bee, 30, 000 to 40, 000 female worker bees, and up to 100 male drones.
The fertilized queen bee, the largest bee, can lay more than 1000 eggs per day, and while laying eggs she is fed and cleaned by worker bees.
She has only one mating period when she leaves the hive more than once over a period of three days during seven mating flights to mate with 7 to 10 drones.
Then she can use the stored sperm to lay fertilized eggs.
The queen bee can live for two to four years, but beekeepers usually replace her after one year, because she produces most of the eggs in the first year.
Worker bees, undeveloped females that do not normally lay eggs, are 13 to 17 mm long and live for about 6 weeks.
As a hive nurse, they feed other bees, i.e. drones, queen and brood, clean and cap cells, pack pollen, receive nectar into the hive, clean the hive and build honeycomb to store honey.
As hive guards, they protect the hive from other insects.
As foragers, they collect nectar from plants and become dusted with pollen.
They carry the pollen to other plants where the pollen fertilizes the ovules of plants to allow cross-pollination.
Drones are male bees, do not have a sting, are shorter than the queen and are twice the weight of the worker bees.
They have larger eyes and antennae than the workers to help them find the queen for mating.
They die after mating, because they have no other function or they may be evicted from the hive by the beginning of winter.
The artificial beehive contains up to 40, 000 bees.
The "honey super" type of commercial beehive contains eight frames on which the bees build honeycomb and which can be removed to obtain the honey.
The brood chamber, where the queen usually lives and lays eggs, also contains honeycomb, but the cells are not as deep as in the super,
because they are used for egg laying and brood rearing.
The comb is white when new, becomes yellow as it absorbs pollen during food storage, and becomes darker if used for generations.
The temperature in the hive is maintained at 34oC, because during cooler weather the bees eat more honey to provide energy for warmth.
During hotter weather the bring in water on their honey stomachs, deposit the water on the honeycomb then use their wings to fan the moisture as a form of evaporative cooling.
Older worker guard the entrance to the hive to deter intruders, including hungry bees from other hives.
The queen lays eggs, but only the worker eggs are fertilized, which then hatch after about three days as larvae (grubs), and are fed royal jelly produced by the hypopharyngeal
glands of the worker bees.
The feeding soon stops, except for the larva that will develop as a new queen.
The larvae develop as pupae then undergo metamorphosis to become queens after sixteen days or workers after twenty one days or drones after twenty four days.
However, before a new queen is hatched, the old queen flies off with about half the worker bees and drones, swarming, after they have have ingested about half the stored honey,
to find a new home located by scout bees.
Bees store honey to provide food during periods of no flowers and to produce a swarm.
Swarming is prevented by opening the hives each week and destroying the queen cells.
Bees communicate by dances, vibrations and body chemicals.
Scout bees first locate flowers with nectar and pollen, return to the hive and communicate the position of the flowers.
They use buzzing noises, round dance and figure eight wiggle dance, waggle dance, using the position of the sun as a prime source of direction.
The waggle dances indicate the direction and approximate distance of the best nectar sources found by the foraging workers.
Honeybees from hives in the cities do not have to fly as far to find food as honeybees with hives in the rural areas.
Gardens in the cities provide more diverse resources than farmland and city gardeners often aim to have flowers blooming throughout spring and summer.
Bees don't just make honey, they are vital to life on earth, every year pollinating 90% of plants and crops.
Without immediate action to save bees, many of our favourite fruits, vegetables, and nuts could vanish from our shelves.
Bees make use of the following herbs: thyme (most used), rosemary, sage, marjoram, chives, basil, mints and native flowering bushes, e.g. spirea and goldenrod.
Bees take in minerals from seaweed in water, so keep some washed seaweed in a shallow dish if water with tiny sticks in it for the bees to land on.
9.1.8 Honeybee body structure, (Apis mellifera)
See diagram 9.7.1: Make a paper frame to study honeybees.
1. Examine the hairs on the legs
Cut a piece of paper the size of a coverslip from a sheet of writing paper and fold to form a two layered triangle.
Cut from this triangle the area so that only a strip 2 mm wide remains.
Unfold to give a small paper frame.
Holding it with forceps, preferably at one corner, put a very thin layer of all purpose glue on both sides and attach it to a slide.
Examine a bee.
It can be seen with the naked eye, and even better with a magnifying glass, that the body of the bee is almost completely covered with hairs.
Pluck a clump of hairs from a well covered site with forceps.
Put it inside the fixed paper frame on the slide and press a coverslip over the upper side of the frame, which is already coated with glue.
The hairs are now firmly enclosed between the slide and the coverslip.
Such a specimen keeps for a long time and is called a permanent preparation.
Permanent preparations can also be prepared with other specimens by this method.
However, they must be absolutely dry as, for example, the scales of butterfly wings.
If the specimens are moist, they go mouldy in the enclosed space between the slide and the coverslip.
Inspect the preparation with a microscope, magnification 50 X the hairs.
When collecting pollen, bees often roll over in the flowers, thus covering their whole body with pollen.
The hairs are adapted to the activity of pollen gathering.
Microscope slide insect anatomy Apis (bee), wings, three legs, spiracles
2. Examine the antennas
Count the number of parts making up a single antenna and note their relative arrangement.
Examine the antennas with a magnifying glass.
The segment attached to the head is called the scape.
A flagellum consisting of individual joints projects from one corner.
Count the joints in the female worker and the drones.
Between the shaft and flagellum is a small, ring shaped connecting piece called a turning joint.
Transfer a drop of glycerine to the middle of a slide with a glass rod to examine the dark coloured sections of a bee.
Use forceps to remove both antennas from a bee at the point where they are attached to the head.
Put them in the drop of glycerine on the slide and place a coverslip on top.
Avoid trapping air bubbles by holding the sides of the coverslip with thumb and index finger and mount it at an angle.
Then draw it into the glycerine drop and let it settle gently into place without applying pressure.
First examine the preparation under a microscope, magnification 50 X.
The structure of the antennas can be seen more clearly than with a magnifying glass.
Round pores are visible on their surface.
Where and how are they distributed?
How large are they?
The pores can be seen in more detail using a higher powered objective, 40 X.
The large pores are the openings of the olfactory pits, and very fine probing setae emerge from the smaller ones.
Prepare a drawing showing the component parts of a bee antennas.
What purpose do the antennas of the bee serve?
3. Examine the wings
The three main sections of the body of a bee are head, thorax and abdomen.
The wings are attached to the middle section, the thorax.
There are two pairs of wings, one pair each of forewings and hindwings.
Discover how the wings of the bee are constructed.
The forewings and hindwings on each side are linked by hooks and grooves, so that they move together in flight and fold away neatly when in the hive.
Choose a bee that has all its wings, undamaged and not twisted.
Hold the bee between the thumb and index finger of the left hand so that its back faces upwards and its head points forward.
Using forceps, grasp the outermost tip of the right forewing and bend it backwards over the surface of the hindwing.
Then draw it slowly forward again.
The trailing edge of the forewing should graze over the surface of the hindwing.
What can you see?
Repeat the process again, if necessary several times until something attracts your attention.
Next, examine the wings with a magnifying glass.
Are they all the same size?
How are they constructed?
Using pointed scissors cut off both wings on one side as close as possible to the body.
Transfer a drop of glycerine to a slide using a glass rod and introduce the wings into it and place a coverslip over them.
Examine the preparation under a microscope, magnification 50 X.
What can you see on the wings?
How are they constructed?
Very examine the middle part of the front edge of the hindwing.
What do you find there?
There is a brown strip in this middle section.
It is wider than the "veins" of the wing, runs close to the edge and stands out clearly.
At this point the skin of the front wing wraps over, making a fold.
Together with the little hook, hamuli, on the hindwing it forms the coupling apparatus and is essential for flight.
What is the function of the coupling apparatus of the bee?
Remember what happens when the front wing is drawn forwards over the surface of the rear wing.
4. Examine the legs
The bee has three pairs of legs.
Like the wings, they are attached to the middle section of the body, the thorax.
Examine the legs of the bee to discover how they are constructed.
With the lancet form dissecting needle tease off all the legs of the bee flush with the body.
Be sure that the legs are completely detached and that nothing remains hanging from the body.
First examine them under a magnifying glass.
It can be clearly seen that each leg consists of several different sections.
The uppermost portion attached directly to the body is the coxa.
Then follows the trochanter, the femur, the tibia and the tarsus, which consists of five tarsomeres or tarsal joints.
The first, uppermost, tarsal joint is much larger than the other four.
The claws are attached to the last, lowest, tarsomere.
How many claws are there?
See whether all the legs of the bee are constructed in this way.
What is the hair pattern?
The hind legs of the bee are collecting legs.
Examine them closely to see why they are called this.
On the inner side of the first tarsal joint are transverse rows of stiff hairs like bristles.
They can be clearly seen with the magnifying glass.
They form the pollen brushes with which the bee brushes off the flower dust, or pollen, from its body.
Count the rows of bristles.
On the outer surface of the tibia there is a smooth hairless area, which is slightly concave.
This depression is called the corbicula, or pollen basket, .
It is used for storing pollen.
Hairs surround the edge of the basket.
What is their shape?
And how are they arranged?
In what direction do they point?
What does the slight concavity surrounded by hairs do?
Using a glass rod place a drop of glycerine in the middle of a microscope slide, place a collecting leg in the glycerine and place a coverslip over it.
Examine the specimen under the microscope, magnification 50 X.
The enlarged image shows the pollen press situated at the junction of the first tarsal joint and the tibia.
The pollen press packs the pollen into small clumps, which are then deposited in the corbicula.
This is how bees "breeches" are formed.
What does the pollen press look like?
Prepare a foreleg from a bee in the same way, and also examine it at magnification 50 X.
The fore legs are the cleaning legs of the bee.
At the upper end of the first tarsomere is a semicircular depression, or notch, fitted with fine setae like a comb.
This is called an antenna cleaner.
At the lower end of the tibia there is a lateral jointed spur, the fibula.
When the bee bends the first tarsomere towards the tibia, the fibula closes the cleaning notch.
The bee then draws its antennas through the comb to remove any adhering pollen grains.
Note which legs of the bee are used for cleaning and which are used for collecting.
Note the position of the brushes and the corbicula on the collecting legs.
The bee clean its antennas with the antennas cleaner.
The underside of the body is covered in soft hairs.
Pollen sticks to these soft hairs when the worker bee enters a flower.
The hairs on the forelegs and middle legs act like combs to sweep it together to be put into the pollen basket.
5. Examine the sting apparatus
The ovipositor through which the queen bee lays eggs is modified in the workers to form a sting.
The bee's "sting" consisting of a barb and attached venom sac located on posterior.
A wasp may sting repeatedly.
The sting causes local pain with swelling later and perhaps an allergic reaction.
Remove a bee sting as soon as possible.
It does not matter whether you pull it out vertically or flick it off sideways or scrape it off by sliding it out with a fingernail.
The longer you wait the bigger the weal!
Some people have died from bee stings caused by a rare anaphylatic reaction when the immune system overreacts.
Then wipe the sting area clean and apply ice.
Seek urgent medical attention, especially if sting is around face or neck.
A wasp may sting repeatedly.
Apply ice and seek medical attention.
Only female bees, both workers and queens, possess a sting apparatus, which is situated in the end segment of the abdomen.
It is used as a weapon.
Examine the structure of the sting apparatus of the bee.
Transfer a drop of water from a beaker to a slide with a glass rod.
Put a bee on its back on a ground glass screen and hold it firmly at the front end of the abdomen with either forceps or your fingers.
Place a pointed dissecting needle on the centre of the abdomen and stroke it backwards, pressing gently.
The sting will be pressed out of the abdomen, usually with the first stroke.
Take hold of it with the pointed forceps, draw it out from the abdomen together with all the adhering organs and place the whole in the drop of water of the slide.
Mount a coverslip over it and examine the specimen under a microscope, magnification 50 X.
The sting is clearly visible.
What shape is it?
And what colour?
If it has been arranged in a useful position barbs can be seen at the tip of the sting on both sides.
In which direction do the tips of these barbs point?
At the upper end of the sting is a swollen sac-like structure from the other end of which hangs a long thin thread.
If removed undamaged from the abdomen this thread will be seen to be divided into two short branches.
These two threads are the venom, or "acid", glands.
The venom released from them then passes, for storage, into the swelling, called the venom sac.
On either side of the sting lie various plates and muscles, which are used when the bee injects the sting into the body of its victim.
All these parts collectively form the sting apparatus of the bee.
Observe the constituent parts and their relative arrangement of the sting apparatus.
6. The mouthparts consist of a "tongue" (labium) that can be enclosed near the head by the labial palls and maxillae.
Nectar can be drawn up the grooved surface of the labium by capillary action and the pumping action of muscles in the head.
These elongated mouthparts can be folded back under the head when not in use leaving the short stout mandibles free to chew pollen, handle wax and repel enemies.
9.1.9 Notes on Australian native Bees, by Mandy, Nimbin Natural Beekeepers
1. Australia has 2000 known bee species and about 1000 more species are yet to be described, (1997, Bulletin of the Australia Native Bee Research Centre).
There are 10 social species and 1000s of solitary species of native bees in Australia.(2001 - Russell and Janine Zable).
Australia's bees range from very primitive types, similar to wasps, to advanced types with complex nesting behaviour.
Some of them look like wasps, with thin-waisted, nearly bare bodies, while others look like they are wearing thick furry overcoats.
Some species are tiny, like mosquitoes, while others are big and fat like bumble bees.
Some species are completely black, while others have beautiful coloured markings or even have shining metallic coloured bodies.
To sort these myriad different forms into recognizable types, get them to poke out their tongue.
The most primitive bees have short tongues and can only feed on shallow flowers.
More advanced bees have long tapering tongues.
2. The two families of short-tongue bees in Australia are the Colletidae, a solitary bee with short blunt tongue, and the Halictidae, a solitary or semi-social bee with a short pointy tongue.
All the other families of Australian bees have long pointy tongues, the Megachilidae solitary or semi-social bee, the Anthophoridae solitary or semi-social bee, and the Apidae social stingless bee.
3. Another feature that distinguishes Australian native bees is the way they carry pollen and carry it in a special stomach called the crop.
The Megachilidae carry their pollen in a thick brush of bristles underneath the abdomen or tail part of their bodies.
The Apidae carry pollen packed on the pollen basket a special curved surface on the hind leg, just like honey bees.
Trigona carbonaria, a stingless little black bee, just 4 mm long, has thick white fur on its face and sides.
It lives in a large social nest with hundreds of workers plus drones and queens inside hollow trees.
4. All bees have 4 wings, which are hard to see, because they are joined with little hooks, only seen under a magnifying glass.
All flies have 2 wings, but bees and wasps are harder to distinguish accurately.
Bees collect pollen as a protein food to feed their young, using a few branched hairs on their bodies.
Pollen grains are easily trapped in the junctions of the branched hairs, pretty feathery hairs.
Wasps are carnivorous.
They catch other insects or spiders for their young.
Wasp hairs are smooth and straight, like bristles.
5. There are now over 20 described species of Blue Banded Bees in Australia, but none in Tasmania.
The name of the Blue Banded Bee refers to the spectacular stripes of iridescent or metallic blue fur, which it has across its black abdomen or tail section.
However, some Blue Banded Bees actually have green, reddish or even white stripes.
These beautiful colours are caused by microscopic diagonal stripes engraved on the surface of each hair.
These lines diffract (or break up) the light producing colours resembling an exquisite opal.
They often have a thick fleece of red-brown on their thoraxes or midsections and have bright lemon, cream or white markings on their faces.
They take 7 weeks to hatch, an adult lives about 40 days, 3 generations of bees hatch during summer, some spend all winter in a "prepupa" not yet, form a "pupa", and wait for spring.
6. Cuckoo Bee species are rare in Australia.
There are 10 Australian species of cuckoo bees.
They are cunning and stalk the nests of blue-banded and teddy bear bees.
The Neon Cuckoo Bee has blue fur on his back each band consists of 4 markings glittering metallic blue spots arranged in bands.
The common species are Thyreus bees, Neon Cuckoo bee, Chequered Cuckoo bee, Domino Cuckoo bee (whitespots).
6. Looking to attract more solitary native bees to your garden?
See diagram 9.1.9: Make a native beehive.
Look no further than that metal can you were about to throw into the recycling bin!
Step 1: Remove the label and wash the can so that it is nice and clean.
Step 2: Chop twigs so that they fit snugly into the can (lantana, tiger grass, umbrella tree stems and bamboo are all good alternatives).
Step 3: Once the can is tightly packed, firmly secure the can horizontally in a tree at about 1.5m off the ground in a protected spot.
Step 4: Wait for the bees to move in.
It might take months, weeks or days, but one day you will look in there to find some happy insects.
9.1 Bird beaks
| See diagram 9.3.5.1: Beaks and feet.
| See diagram 9.1.2: Birds 1.
| See diagram 9.1.3: Birds 2.
Experiment
Study beak types and observe the feeding behaviour of birds with a particular
type of beak.
Investigate different beak uses.
9.2 Bird feet
See diagram 9.3.5.1: Beaks and feet.
Experiment
Study feet types and observe the behaviour of birds with particular feet type, e.g. wading, walking, swimming, perching, hunting, and carrying objects.
Many birds use their feet in perching or grasping, e.g. the woodpecker.
Other birds use their feet primarily for walking, e.g. quail.
Water fowl have webbed feet for wading and swimming, e.g. ducks, pelicans.
Hunting birds have large talons, e.g. hawks, owls.
9.3 Casts of bird footprints
See diagram 9.3.5.2: Casts of bird footprints.
3.67 Tests for strength of plaster of
Paris bricks
Experiment
Make casts of foot imprints found in soft soil or mud.
Use cardboard, paper clips, plaster of Paris and a spoon.
Form a cylinder with cardboard and a paper clip.
Put the cylinder around a track.
Pour a plaster of Paris into the cylinder.
When the plaster hardens, a raised or negative print of the track forms.
Use the negative print to make a positive print.
Organize casts into categories based upon use or function.
Plaster of Paris is partially dehydrated calcium sulfate crystals, CaSO4.
When mixed into a paste with water it sets quickly and expands.
It is used as a fine casting material.
Put 4 mL of water into a beaker.
Add the powdered plaster of Paris slowly with a spatula.
Continue adding the plaster until it just appears above the surface of the water.
The plaster absorbs the water and you should finish with a very thin layer of water, about 1 mm, above the plaster.
Stir the mixture well.
When it begins to thicken, pour it into the paper box.
Smooth the surface of the cement in the mould and leave to set for 1 day.
Test the surface and strength of these bricks.
Plaster of Paris is not often used as a construction material, but calcium sulfate as gypsum, CaSO4.2H2O, is used to prepare Portland cement.
9.4 Bird nests
See diagram 9.1.4: Parrots.
Experiment
Observe the activities of birds in nests, but do not disturb the nesting behaviour of the birds.
Observe nest building, bird habits and the materials used.
Abandoned nests reveal detail of construction and small organisms that live in the nesting materials.
After hatching, observe the feeding and care of young.
Note how defence of its territory by a bird is an important behaviour in limiting the bird population in a given area.
Note aggressive bird behaviour in nesting and feeding areas.
Be careful! Nesting birds may attack children.
9.5 Bird houses
See diagram 9.1.5: Nesting houses.
Experiment
Make a bird house that will help their nest building behaviour.
The internal size must be suitable for the nest of the bird.
The entry hole must be of appropriate size.
Leave the interior unpainted.
Put the house where the bird will use it and at the proper height above the ground.
Small houses with tiny openings lure small birds.
For example, a house for wrens should be 10 cm by 10 cm by 12 cm, with an opening hole 2.5 cm diameter.
Some birds will nest in an open structure, e.g. the robin.
Some birds need a house that resembles a tree trunk and has an opening 10 cm across, e.g. screech owls.
9.6 Feeders to attract birds
See diagram 9.1.5 : Bird feeders.
Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when building these feeders.
Handle metal netting, wire and tin with care.
Always cut away from the body.
Mixed seeds and suet (sheep kidney fat), attract many bird types at all seasons of the year.
Bird feeders attract not only birds, but also small mammals, e.g. mice and squirrels.
Observe food preferences, times of feeding activity, and other behaviours.
Experiment
1. Make a cubical suet cage from metal netting and nail it to a tree or post.
When cutting the metal netting, leave wire lengths protruding to be bent over adjoining squares to hold the sides together.
Leave the front panel free at the top so that it may be opened to replace the suet.
Fasten the closed cage with wire loops.
2. Make an open bird feeder from wood or metal scrap with a roof to keep snow and rain off the seeds.
Construct sides to the feeder to prevent birds from kicking out the seed mixture while searching for their favourite types of seed.
3. Make another metal bird feeder by cutting out both ends of a coffee tin, and attaching a cake pan under it with stiff wire.
Make a plastic lid to fit over the top and hang from a branch with wire.
9.7 Birds in your garden
Populations of many small bird species are declining, because of loss off places for them to live and raise their families in both rural farmlands and built up areas.
You can help these birds to survive by helping them to live in your garden.
However, some birds are nuisance birds.
The Common Indian Myna (Acridotheres tristis) reduces biodiversity by competing for nesting hollows with Australian native birds and stopping them breeding.
Other nuisance birds chase away other birds and spoil gardens, e.g. ibis, brush turkeys and miners.
However, these birds are protected so you cannot kill them.
In your garden, plant dense shrubs close together below a tree layer to form protective thickets.
Avoid using insecticides.
Place bird baths close to plants where birds can perch, in shade and out of the reach of cats.
Feed birds with native seed mix rather than bread or sunflower seeds.
Do not feed meat to birds, because they may become aggressive to other birds and humans.
Keep you cat or dog away from the part of your garden where you want the birds to visit.
Backyard birds of Brisbane
Australian Brush turkey, Australian White Ibis, Australian Magpie,
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike, Blue-faced Honeyeater, Brown Honeyeater, Bush Stone-curlew,
Common (Indian) Myna, Common Koel,
Crested Pidgeon,
Figbird,
Grey Butcherbird,
Laughing Kookaburra,
Magpie-lark (Pee-wee),
Noisy Miner,
Pale-headed Rosella, Pied Butcherbird,
Rainbow Lorikeet, Red-backed Fairy-wren,
Silvereye, Striated Pardalote, sulfur-crested Cockatoo, Superb Fairy-wren,
Welcome Swallow, Willie Wagtail
Common names: butcher bird, cockatoo, cuckoo shrike, curlew, fig bird, honey eater, ibis, kookaburra, lorikeet, magpie, miner, myna, pardalote, pidgeon, rosella, silvereye, swallow, turkey, willie wagtail.
9.8.0 Insect body, cockroach or grasshopper
See diagram 9.9.0: VS Insect, body plan.
See diagram 9.9.1: Cockroach.
See diagram 9.9.2: Grasshopper.
The exoskeleton is made mainly of chitin.
It is hard, strong and impermeable to liquids and gases.
Spiracles (holes), are laterally situated on some of the body segments and lead into the tracheal system of tubes inside the body to allow transfer of respiratory gases.
Experiments
1. Observe the following structure of insects
The body is divided into three regions
9.9.1 Head,
9.9.2 Thorax,
9.9.3 Abdomen
2. Examine the body structure of the cockroach with a magnifying glass.
Hold a female cockroach with forceps, by one of its legs so that it can be turned right round and inspected.
Repeat the examination with a male cockroach.
Note the differences between the male and the female cockroaches from both dorsal and ventral views.
Note where the legs are attached to the abdomen.
Note whether the three pairs of legs all have the same design.
Note the wings attached to the abdomen, the antennas and the two large eyes on the head.
3. Observe the head, antennas, compound eyes, mouthparts, three pairs of jointed legs, thorax, pairs of wings, abdomen, openings along the side of the abdomen for breathing, wing veins that support the wings and keep the wings rigid when flying.
9.9.0 Daphnia, water flea
Daphnia, iNaturalist
Daphnia, Live Fish Food
9.37.6 Stain living Daphnia
9.34 Community of aquatic organisms (See 5.)
16.7.29 Toxic effect of drugs on water fleas
9.9.1 Insect head, the neck is flexible in predators, e.g. praying mantis
See diagram 9.9.3: Insect mouthparts.
Antennae
Insects have one pair of jointed antennae, organs of touch and smell.
Mobile filaments made up of segments linked by membranous joints.
Long where sense of touch is important, e.g. cockroach.
Short where sight more important, e.g. dragonfly.
End of filament modified as flattened leafy plates, e.g. scarab beetle, club at end, butterfly, elbowed shape, e.g. ants, feathery branched, e.g. emperor moth.
Eye
The insect eye is a compound eye made of separate units, called ommatidia, to provide "mosaic" vision.
Each ommatidium has an outer lens, seen as a facet and light sensitive organ.
Number of facets per eye house fly 4 000 facets, butterfly 20 000, dragonfly 25 000. Insect eye can detect movement, but cannot focus.
Most insects cannot distinguish separate colours, but how colours reflect ultraviolet light.
Most insects are attracted to ultraviolet light, so UV light electric "insect zappers" are found in food shops.
In the head of some insects are three ocelli, structures to determine light intensity.
Mouthparts
The mouthparts have 3 pairs of jaws
1. Mandibles for biting and chewing, with flap above (labium) as an upper
lip.
2. Maxillae can hold food and have sensory palls.
3. Labium acts as a lower lip, but may be modified to form long feeding tubes, e.g. sucking bugs (Diptera) mosquito.
The mayfly has no mouthparts, so it cannot feed.
Experiment
Examine prepared slides showing various parts of the head of cockroach or find the mouthparts folded under the head and pointing backwards.
Using a fume cupboard, fume hood, detach the head and boil it in 5% potassium hydroxide solution.
Detach the mouthparts with forceps and dehydrate with methylated spirit in a watch glass, then add some xylol.
Make a circle with a polystyrene mounting medium on a microscope slide.
Arrange the mouthparts within the circle then put on a coverslip.
Note how the mouthparts are modified for biting and crushing.
Identify the upper lip hinged to the lower portion of the face, a pair of mandibles (first pair of jaws) at the sides of the mouth, a second pair of jaws behind the first pair, and the lower lip.
9.9.2 Insect thorax
See diagram 9.9.4: Insect wings.
1. The insect thorax has 3 segments fused to each other, prothorax pair
of legs, mesothorax pair of legs, pair of forewings, metathorax
pair of legs, pair of hindwings
2. Three pairs of jointed walking legs that end in claws, one pair on each
thoracic segment.
Legs modified for digging, e.g. mole cricket, swimming, e.g. water boatman,
seizing prey, e.g. praying mantis, jumping, e.g. cricket.
3. Two pairs of wings, if present, are on the second, or second and third,
thoracic segments.
The different arrangements of wings include the following:
1. Wings membranous flap supported by network of "veins" with arrangement
characteristic of different insects.
2. All 4 wings are used in flight to beat independently, e.g. dragon fly
or pairs of wings joined to beat as one wing, e.g. bee, butterfly,
moth.
3. Forewings are thickened and hindwings can be folded under them, e.g.
locust, grasshopper or modified to form protective shield not
used in flight, called elytra, e.g. beetle.
4. House flies have hindwings modified as knobs, called halteres.
5. Flightless insects have no wings, e.g. fleas, lice, some sucking bugs.
9.9.3 Insect abdomen
The insect abdomen has 11 segments or less or fused, joined by thin membrane,
no appendages for locomotion on the abdomen.
1. At apex, male genitalia including claspers.
2. At end, female egg laying organ (ovipositor) or modified to form a sting,
e.g. bee, ant, wasp.
3. Anus at end with segmented cerci on each side like small antennae, but
they can be modified to form forceps, e.g. earwig.
4. No appendages for locomotion on the abdomen or anus.
9.10.0 Life cycle of a frog
See diagram 9.310: Frog life cycle.
Explain the different stages in the life cycle of a frog.
Look for frogs' eggs and tadpoles then bring them to school.
1. Show pictures of frogs.
Ask them How are s different from lizards and snakes? [s have no scales,
have a soft skin and lay their eggs in the water.]
2. Explain the life cycle A male frog mates with a female frog by sitting
on her back.
When the female frog lays eggs, the male frog puts sperm on them, in the
water.
Most of the eggs are fertilized, because the sperm and eggs are laid very
close to each other.
The eggs are covered in a clear jelly.
The fertilized eggs grow into tadpoles.
The tadpoles have tails that help them to swim.
After several weeks the tadpoles are eaten by fish so although a female
frog lays hundreds of eggs only a few will grow into adult s.
Draw the frogs's life cycle.
[SAFETY NOTE: Toads have a venom gland on each shoulder that secretes a white fluid.
Other venom glands may distributed over the back.
Contact with a child's eyes, mouth, nostrils causes severe pain and irritation.
Treat by washing fluid from the body.
If venom is in the eyes, irrigate with water for 20 minutes.
If venom is ingested, induce vomiting and seek medical aid.
Wash your hands thoroughly after giving treatment.
Frogs may exude a toxic chemical from the skin.
Treat touching s as for touching toads.
Some fairy stories tell of girls kissing s or toads which then turn into
a prince by magic.
Do not let children imitate such a practice!]
Do not keep toads, because some are poisonous.
For example the cane toad, Bufo marinus, is native to South America,, but was introduced to Pacific Islands and Australia to control
agricultural pests.
However, it is now a pest itself, because it has poisonous glands behind
the eyes and across the back.
Tadpoles have many shapes and colours, swim individually and you can usually
see through their lower abdomen skin to see their
intestines.
Tadpoles are black with pointed snouts, very small and travel in groups.
Some tadpoles can look like toads, but generally toads sit very upright, grow bigger than tadpoles, have a rough skin, have glands behind the
eyes, ridges like eyebrows above their eyes, downwards-turning mouths, move in very short hops and cannot climb trees.
Experiment
Put a clump of frog spawn the size of a fist into an aquarium.
At least half the water in the aquarium should come from the place where
the frog spawn was found.
The water must be kept clean throughout the period of observation.
s like leaf litter, clumps of grass and a few dead branches of trees to
serve as cool hiding places.
Do not spray insecticides near tadpoles.
Feed tadpoles by adding boiled lettuce or boiled papaya leaves to the water
every three days.
However, when the water becomes cloudy, replace a part so that it is always
clear.
Algae will develop on the inside of the glass providing nutrients for the
young frog larvae.
Give as much fish food as the frog larvae, tadpoles, can eat
in half an hour.
Remove any food uneaten at the end of this time with the sludge extractor
to prevent it decomposing and clouding the water.
Observe the development of the frog larvae and tadpoles daily.
When the tadpoles have legs, put a small floating piece of cork or foam
plastic on the surface of the water in the aquarium, or small
branches of trees, so that they can leave the water when necessary.
Release the fully developed young s when the observations have been completed.
In some fairy stories, a princess kisses a frog and a handsome young man
appears, however never kiss frogs!
Note the following:
1. Frog's egg in the gelatinous capsule
2. Young larva in the capsule
3. Larva with a tail, a young tadpole, that has emerged from the capsule
4. Large tadpole without legs
5. Tadpole with hind legs
6. Tadpole with hind legs and forelegs
7. Small young frog with the remains of a tail
8. Fully-developed young.
9.19 Insect collecting
Collecting from animals, parasitic insects
Collecting from bark
Collecting from birds' nests
Collecting from carcasses
Collecting from dung
Collecting from emergence boxes
Collecting from flight, only adult insects, use a butterfly net, use a
light trap
Collecting from flowers, shake flowers over an umbrella, also some small
insects inside flower buds
Collecting from foliage, hold an umbrella under foliage and beat the foliage
to dislodge the insects, collect eggs
Collecting from fruit, keep fruit in a container to allow adult insects
to emerge
Collecting from fungus
Collecting from galls
Collecting from leaf litter
Collecting from leaves, larvae of leaf miners leave snake-like markings
on the leaves, pick leaf and keep fresh for adult to appear
Collecting from roots
Collecting from soil
Collecting from stones and rocks
Collecting from water, aquatic insects
Collecting from wood, dead wood.
9.20 Insect collecting nets, air net, sweep net
Net (butterfly), "Modern Teaching Aids" (Commercial).
See diagram 9.3.14: Insect air net.
To make an insect air net, use a broomstick, heavy wire and mosquito netting.
Bend a heavy piece of wire into a circle 45 cm in diameter, and twist the
ends together to form a straight section 15 cm in length.
Fasten this to the end of a broom handle with a wire.
Cut a piece of mosquito netting to form a net 75 cm deep and fasten to
the circular wire frame with stitches.
Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling heavy pieces
of wire.
Sweep net
Make a sweep net with muslin and very heavy wire that will not bend when
the net is swept through grass.
Sweep by working back and forth over a measured area.
Count the net contents to estimate the number of insects between the soil
surface and the grass tops.
To find the relative numbers of insects, sample the school grounds, a farm
field, an abandoned field, forest floor or other natural areas.
Before the sweeping of vegetation, make small cages for crickets or grasshoppers
with metal insect netting.
Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling metal netting.
Put grass, water and a small dish of moist sand in each cage.
Females may lay eggs in the sand.
9.21 Insect killing container
Obtain a wide mouth glass container with a screw top or one that closes
very tightly.
Put a cotton wad in the bottom of the container and cover it with a round
piece of cardboard or absorbent paper that has several holes
punched through it.
When the container is used, saturate the cotton wad with an insecticide.
Put the piece of cardboard over the cotton wad and then put the insect
in the jar.
Close the container tightly and leave until the insect is dead.
Use a large container if collecting moths or butterflies to avoid damaging
the wings.
9.22 Insect stretching board
(setting board)
See diagram 9.3.15: Insect stretching board (setting board).
Use an insect stretching board to prepare insects for mounting.
Make the stretching board from flat cork sheets or soft wood split into
two equal parts with a space 1 cm wide between them.
Fit the cork sheets into a flat cardboard or wooden box.
Put the body of the insect in the space and pin the wings on the top with
strips of paper held by pins pushed into the cork, but not
through the wings.
9.23 Mounting boxes for insect
collections
See diagram 9.3.15: Insect stretching board (setting board).
Use wood boxes for keeping insect collections.
After removing the insect from the stretching board, push a pin or long
entomological pin through the body, and pressed into the
bottom of the box to hold the insect.
This is called a mounted specimen.
Arrange the pins in orderly fashion.
Attach small cardboard cards containing information about the insects,
e.g. name, where caught, date of capture.
For displays in a school museum remove the lid and cover with glass or
cellophane taped to the box to make a permanent mounting.
Store soft-bodied larvae and pupae in tubes containing methylated spirit
or other special preservatives for insects.
9.24 Mounting block guide
See diagram 9.3.15: Insect stretching board (setting board).
A uniformly mounted collection is more attractive and makes it easy to
compare specimens.
Make a wooden mounting block that looks like three steps.
Each step has a hole drilled through its centre.
Use the top step to line up all insects at the same height by impaling
the insect and pressing the pin through the top hole.
The other steps provide uniform levels for labels containing information
about the specimens.
9.25 Simple cage
Make a 15 cm cubical frame from ice cream bar sticks.
Pull a ladies' stocking over the frame and close the open end by tying
a loose knot.
The open end provides access to the cage interior.
9.26 Insectarium
Put 3 cm of moist, not wet, soil in an aquarium.
Add rocks and a small log.
Transplant small plants from the garden.
Catch insects and put them in the aquarium.
Cover the aquarium with wire or plastic mesh.
Use only 3 or 4 beetles.
Remove any leftover food after 3 days then add fresh food.
Sprinkle the soil with water when it becomes dry.
Give lettuce or cabbage leaves to grasshoppers.
Give pieces of apple, plums, and bananas to bugs and flies.
Give bread or fruit to ants and cockroaches.
Give grain to beetles.
9.27 Insect behaviour diary
Note when are the insects are more active, when and how they feed, how
they get on with each another, when they sleep or rest at
night or during the day.
9.28 Night insects
Study night flying insects by setting up a light trap.
It is a white sheet stretched out between small trees at an angle of 30o
from the vertical.
Put a bright light source under the sheet.
9.29 Insect catcher
See diagram 9.29: Pooter, insect catcher, ant sucker, aspirator bottle.
Make an insect catcher.
Use a 30 cm length of plastic or glass tubing, 3 cm in diameter, a small
piece of fine wire mesh, and a length of flexible tubing.
Cut a circular piece of wire mesh slightly larger than the inside diameter
of the glass or plastic tubing.
Force the screen half way through the tubing by pushing it with a rod.
9.30 Animal traps
You may need permission to keep animals in the school.
Also you may have to report periodically on what animals you keep and why
they are necessary for your teaching programme.
Catch small mammals and reptiles for study (not snakes).
Use a large glass container with a wide mouth and a screw-on cap.
Make a one way door by cutting an opening in the lid and attaching a free
swinging metal door that opens inward only.
The door swings on a stiff wire.
Transfer animals to cages without direct handling.
Be careful! Wear heavy leather gloves when handling reptiles or mammals.
Even when non-poisonous, bites from such animals may become infected.
9.31 Animal cages
See diagram 9.3.17: Cage.
Keep animals in cages in the science room for short periods of observation.
Make a cage from a wooden box with a hinged lid that has a window covered
with wire netting.
Cut windows in three sides of the box.
Cover the side and back windows with wire netting, and a fit a glass plate
in the front window.
Add a drawer fitted under the front glass window and covering the entire
bottom of the cage to allow cleaning the cage without
disturbing the animals.
9.32 Food and water for animals
Keep food and water containers above the floor of the cage.
Make a feeding trough for small animals by cutting a section from the side of a tin can, bending over the sharp edges, and then attaching it to the side of the cage with wires.
Make a watering device for small animals from a bottle fitted with a one-hole rubber stopper through which passes glass tubing.
Invert the bottle and insert the tubing through the screen into the cage.
Change food and water daily and clean cages once a week.
9.33.0 Earthworm behaviour, Lumbricus
See diagram 9.3.32: Earthworm observation box.
The burrowing behaviour of the common earthworm, Lumbricus terrestris, provides valuable aeration of agricultural soils.
Make a wooden observation box 30 cm × 30 cm × 15 cm fitted with a glass front to studying the habits of earthworms.
Fill the box nearly to the top with successive layers of 1. sand, 2. leaf mould, and 3. loam soil.
Push down each layer before adding the next layer.
Put lettuce leaves, dead leaves, and pieces of carrot on the surface of the soil.
Loosen the surface of the soil and gently drop on some earthworms.
Watch them burrow into the loose soil.
Keep the contents of the box damp and study the behaviour of the worms through the glass front of the observation box.
9.33.1 Smart worm farm
The wonders of worms for campus kindergarten children.
University of Queensland Campus Kindergarten children have made some new animal friends lately thanks to their smart worm farm, a feat of sustainable engineering and environmental education.
Designed by an UQ software engineering student as part of his final year thesis project, the farm is part of research initiatives, which explore various ways of using "the Internet of Things" technologies, (the concept of connecting any device to the internet).
The project involved making a "smart" worm farm that is sustainable as well as functional.
The farm's key features include an automated hydration system, temperature and moisture sensors, an infrared (IR) camera a web app, and the farm runs on solar power.
The hydration system is connected to a tap via a hose and sprays water into the farm when moisture levels get low to make the farm more self-sufficient and keeps track of water use.
Data sensors are used for the watering system, and are also useful for ensuring that the farm provides an optimum environment for the worms.
The farm's IR camera snaps photos every hour, allowing the children to keep track of their new friends and learn about what the worms do down in the soil.
Worms are pretty sustainability savvy, because they eat most food waste and process it into nutrient-rich plant food, and worm castings are excellent for plant health.
The feed the worms food scraps and use the farm compost in their own Campus Kindergarten veggie garden.
These activities give them valuable insight into caring for the environment, recycling and reducing food waste.
The children are also responsible for looking after and harvesting the veggie garden, which will eventually be used for kindergarten cooking activities.
Children are hands on, they love the feel of the worms in their hands, but they ask is how worms see underground and what they actually do in the soil.
With the camera, the children can observe the worms and have a better understanding of how the worms live under the soil.
All of this helps inform the children's understanding of the environment and the importance of sustainable practice, as well as building other key life skills.
Their ability to take ownership of the worm farm through feeding the worms, measuring how much the worms have eaten, (via the app) and observing them through the camera helps them develop their problem-solving, curiosity, imagination and confidence.
9.34.1 Flying ants and termites
Both ants (Order Hymenoptera, Family Formicidae) and termites (Order Isoptera, white ants) can swarm during spring and summer.
Swarming is a natural occurrence that enables the colonies to reproduce and create additional nests.
Flying termites (alates) noticed outdoors should not normally be reason
for alarm.
However more than a few swarming termites indoors may be a far more serious
problem.
If you notice more than 20 termite alates indoors, i.e. they have not flown
in from outdoors, contact a pest controller without delay.
Try to capture and live specimens in a dry jar.
Do not add water or any preservative.
Both flying termites and flying ants have two pairs of wings and their
colour is dark grey to black.
Termites
1. Have antennae that are almost straight and have a beaded appearance.
2. Wings are virtually twice as long as their body.
3. Both wing pairs are the same size.
4. Wing veins are not visible to the naked eye.
5. Have no taper to their body
6. Wings break off easily, with just a touch
Ants
1. Have antennae that are elbowed (bent).
2. Wings differ in size.
The outer pair is larger than the second pair.
3. Have narrow tapered waists
4. Wing veins are usually easily seen with the naked eye.
5. Have sturdy wings that do not break off easily.
9.34.2 Crazy ants, Anoplolepsis longipes, Biological control using crazy ants
See diagram 55.2.5: Crazy ant, Anoplolepsis longipes
A population of Crazy Ants in a cocoa tree will drive out Mirids and help to control Pantorhytes and Pansepta webworms.
Crazy ants make their nests in soursop trees, so planting some of these trees will help to bring the ants into the cocoa.
The ants drive away the Cocoa weevil borer.
Although over 30 parasites predators and pathogenic fungi have been recorded from Pantorhytes, none have shown promise as biocontrol as the crazy ant, Anoplolepsis longipes and possibly the green tree ant Oecophylla smaragdina.
Dense crazy ant populations eliminate Pantorhytes from cocoa, but as the ant density decreases so the Pantorhytes reinvade and increase.
A technique has been developed for collecting and introducing crazy ants to cocoa.
The crazy ant also controls some other cocoa pests.
Present work is attempting to develop methods of stabilizing crazy ant populations, which are sometimes transient.
However, in many countries crazy ants are a restricted pest.
Make nests of crazy ants which eat Pantorhytes.
Crazy ants are light brown in colour, about four mm long and have long legs and antennae.
They run around very quickly if you frighten them, but they do not bite people.
They make their nests under logs, stones and palm fronds.
Experiment
Make nests for crazy ants in pieces of hollow bamboo.
Fill some pieces of bamboo with leaves and place them near crazy ant nests in such a way that rain cannot get in.
After about two weeks the crazy ants will move into their new home.
Cover the ends of the bamboo with plastic to stop the crazy ants from running away.
Carry the bamboo tubes gently to the cocoa trees.
Put all the bamboo tubes together facing a tree then the crazy ants can help each other to kill the Pantorhytes.
Crazy Ants, unlike most other ant species, are poor nest-builders; they usually live on the ground beneath or inside anything that will give them shelter – e.g. leaf litter, palm fronds, stones, logs or coconut husks.
They are a general predator and scavenger, feeding on any kind of insect they encounter on the ground or in trees, including several cocoa pests.
They can control both Pantorhytes and Mirids in cocoa.
The number of ant nests in a given area can be used to predict the degree of control.
If there are 1 or more nests per square metre, there is likely to be no Mirid or Pantorhytes damage in the cocoa; if one nest every 5 square metres damage could be moderate, while if there are no nests there may be a lot of damage.
9.34.3 Ant study
| See diagram 9.3.33: Ant observation nest.
| See diagram 9.34.2: Ant life cycle.
| See diagram 9.29: Pooter, insect catcher, ant sucker, aspirator bottle.
Ants (Order Hymenoptera, Family Formicidae)
The life cycle has four stages, egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
A winged female is fertilized by a winged male in flight, then finds a protected
place or makes a chamber.
She then bites off her wings and starts to lay eggs.
Fertilized eggs become diploid females.
Unfertilized eggs become haploid males.
The eggs hatch into worm-like larvae that have no eyes or legs.
They eat food collected by the queen or regurgitated by worker ants.
The larvae moult many times as they get bigger.
At full size the larvae spin a cocoon around themselves and become a pupa
that will change into the adult form of ant by metamorphosis.
The female worker ants forage for food and take it to the queen or to storage.
The males soon die, but the queen and workers can live for many years.
The queen controls the activities of all the workers or soldiers in the
ant nest.
Experiment
Make an ant observation nest with glass sides and a lid.
Cut an entry hole near the top of one side and plug it with cotton wool.
Collect 100 ants with an insect collector (ant sucker) and put them in
a bottle.
Fill the observation nest with soil from where the ants were collected
to the level of the plugged hole.
To find the queen, dig up the earth and put it on a white sheet.
Break up the earth with the fingers and look for one ant much larger than
the others, the queen.
Guide the queen to a second bottle.
To get the ants into the observation nest, fill a large flat tray with
water and put an upturned dinner plate in the middle to form an island.
Put the observation nest on the upturned plate and release the ants from
the bottle.
When the queen is inside the nest, the other ants will follow her through
the entry hole.
Plug the hole then remove the nest to its permanent place.
Put honey inside the entry hole to provide food, and keep the soil moist.
Study the activities inside the nest.
Observe the laying of eggs, the larvae, and how ants communicate by rapping
each other on the head with their antennas.
Artificial light does not disturb the ants.
Observe the activity inside the tunnels parallel to the glass.
Experiment by the removal and subsequent return of a few ants, and the
introduction of foreign ants.
When the nest is settled and the queen starts laying eggs, remove the cotton
wool plug from the hole.
Put the observation nest near an open window and the ants will come and
go freely.
9.34.4 Ant pests
Argentine ant
Big-headed ant
Little fire ant
Red imported fire ant
Tropical fire ant
White-footed ant
Yellow crazy ant
9.34.5 Black ant, Dolichoderus thoracicus
They prey on larvae after their emergence from the pod and on pupae, and disturb adults.
They are transferred between plantations in nests of leaves rolled up and stuffed into short lengths of bamboo or plastic bags and hung up in trees.
The black ant (Dolichoderus thoraxicus) and the weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina) have been used to reduce cocoa pod borer
.
In Indonesia, farmers stuff bundles of leaves into plastic bags or short lengths of bamboo and leave them to be colonised by ants in areas where they are common, and then transfer these colonies to new plantings to spread the ants.
9.34.6 Green tree ant, Oecophylla smaragdina
Green tree ant, kurukum ant, weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina
Coconut shade encourages Kurukum Ants that help to control adults and eggs of Pantorhytes weevils in cocoa.
Pest problems in cocoa are less under coconut than under leguminous shade trees.
When there are many Crazy Ants in a block with coconut shade, some coconut pests such as Tirathaba, Axiagastus and Amblypelta can become a problem, because the Crazy Ants drive away the Kurukums that live on palms and feed on these pests.
Tent-building ant, "Cremastogaster lineolata" tents over colonies of aphids and coccoids.
A few other types of insect are known to pollinate cocoa, including ants in the genus Crematogaster, flies in the family Ceciomyiidae, thrips and leafhoppers.
Crazy Ants control Phytophthora Pod Rot, because they tend to drive a9.34.4the tent-building ants that can carry Phytophthora spores up into the canopy.
Little fire ant, Wasmannia auropunctata
Rainbow ant, Iridomyrmex cordatus
Several other ants (e.g. Pheidole, Iridiomirmex, Crematogaster, Oecophylla) are antagonistic to Crazy Ants and will drive them out of a block; these could be poisoned with ant baits before the Crazy Ants are introduced.
The biological control of Pantorhytes weevils, longicorns, mirids and other cocoa pests by Crazy Ants (Anoplolepis) and Kurukum Ants (Oecophylla).
9.36 Flatworms, Dugesia, Planaria
See diagram 9.3.22: Flatworms regenerate parts.
Flatworms react to different stimuli and can regenerate lost parts.
1. Find and feed flatworms
Look for flatworms on the underside of submerged logs or stones in a pond
or lake.
The best species for study are the brown Dugesia or the larger Planaria.
Trap them by wrapping a raw liver in cloth, tying with string and putting
it in a pond.
Check the bait daily, and brush off any flatworms into a small jar of the
water where they were living.
In the classroom, use a medicine dropper to transfer them into a flat enamelled
pan.
Keep the pan covered with a piece of brown cardboard when not observing
them.
Keep the containers covered with a lid when not observing.
Once a week feed the flatworms with finely chopped liver, or hard-boiled
egg, or bits of worms.
Remove uneaten food with a medicine dropper after three hours.
2. Note how flatworms respond to various stimuli, e.g. light, sound, food,
mild electric shocks and Epsom salts.
Use a magnifying glass to observe the tube-like pharynx with which the
flatworm uses to ingest its food.
3. Flatworms can regenerate parts if you put it on a glass microscope slide
and cut it with a sharp razor blade.
Cut it in half across the body or down the length of the body.
A cut, part way down the mid line of the body, can produce a worm with
two heads or two tails.
After cutting the flatworm, return the parts to the dish and do not feed
them until regeneration has occurred.
9.37.0 Arthropod parasitic diseases
9.37.1 Arthropod-carried diseases
(Babesia microti (bacteria carried by tick, Ixodes scapularis),
Babesiosis,
Borrelia burgdorferi (bacteria carried by tick Ixodes holocyclus
in Australia) Lyme disease, Lyme borreliosis
Borrellia recurrentis, relapsing fever
Pediculosis capitis (head louse, does not carry disease)
Pediculus humanus capitus, head lice
One of the safest and most effective methods for controlling head lice is by combing hair with a good lice comb with 3 or 4 rows of closely-spaced metal teeth.
Pediculus humanus corporis (body louse, may carry typhus (Rickettsia prowazeki)
10.5.10 Phthirus pubis, Pediculosis,
lice (pubic louse, "crabs")
Rochalimaea quintana, trench fever
10.5.11 Sarcoptes scabiei, Scabies,
("sandy crabs").
9.37.2 Fluke diseases, trematode diseases, Class Trematoda
Clonorchiasis, Clonorchis sinensis (Chinese liver fluke)
Fascioliasis, Fasciola hepatica (liver fluke)
Fasciolopsiasis (Fasciolopsis buski) (fluke)
Opisthorchiasis, Opisthorchis viverrini and Opisthorchis felineus,
(liver fluke)
Paragonimiasis, Paragonimus westermani, lung fluke
Schistosomiasis (bilharzia, bilharziosis, snail fever), Schistosoma.
9.37.3 Nematode diseases
Angiostrongyliasis, Angiostrongylus cantonensis
Ascariasis, Human intestinal roundworm, Ascaris lumbricoides
Dog roundworm (Toxocara canis)
Capillariasis, Capillaria philippinensis (C. hepatica, C. aerophila)
Dracunculiasis, Dracunculus medinensis (Guinea worm)
Enterobiasis, Enterobius vermicularis (human pinworm, thread worm)
Filariasis, Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi or B. timori
Gnathostomiasis (larva migrans profundus), Gnathostoma spinigerum
Hookworm disease, Necator americanus, Ancylostoma duodenale,
A. ceylanicum, A. braziliense
Loiasis (Loa loa, filariasis, Calabar swellings), Loa loa
Strongtryloidiasis, Strongyloides stercoralis
Trichinellosis (Trichiniasis), Trichinella spiralis
Trichuriasis, Trichocephalus trichiura (whip worm).
9.37.4 Protozoan diseases
Amebiasis (Amoebic dysentery, Amoebic dysentery, Intestinal amebiasis), Entamoeba histolytica
Balantidiasis (Balantidiosis), Balantidium coli
Cryptosporidiosis, Cryptosporidium enteritis
Giardiasis, Giardia lamblia (traveller's diarrhoea)
Leishmaniasis (Kala-azar), Leishmania sp. (carried by sand fly)
Toxoplasmosis, Toxoplasma gondii
10.5.13 Trichomoniasis, Trichomonas vaginalis.
9.37.5 Tapeworm diseases, Class Cestoda
Diphyllobothriasis, Diphyllobothrium latum (fish tapeworm)
Echinococcosis (hydatid), Echinococcus multilocularis
Hymenolepiasis, Hymenolepis nana (H. diminuta), dwarf tapeworm, rat tapeworm
Taeniasis, Taenia solium (pork tapeworm), Taenia saginata (beef tapeworm)
Toxocariasis, Toxocara canis (dog parasite), Toxocara cati (cat parasite) (both Toxocara may infect humans).
9.37.6 Stain living Daphnia
See diagram 9.37.0: Daphnia.
Neutral red: 24.0
A few dyestuffs - which are only slightly poisonous - may be used in very dilute aqueous solution for staining living specimens for
microscopic examination - e.g. neutral red and cresyl violet.
1. Put some Daphnia into a beaker containing 0.1% neutral red solution.
After 10 minutes - transfer them into a drop of the dye solution on a microscope slide and examine at 60 X.
The individual organs and parts of the body are coloured red.
2. Add 6 drops of a saturated aqueous cresyl violet solution to 30 mL distilled water.
Put a drop of this solution on a microscope slide and add a drop containing Daphnia.
Cover the drop with a coverslip and examine at 60 X.
After a few minutes - the gill sacs appear blue - the tactile hairs of the first pair of antennas red - the stomach and the heart yellow and the eggs green.