BABIES!!!

Today was productive across every group- I'm confident we can all beat our tight deadline as long as we keep the steam rolling! Survival data yielded our first counted nymphs, which is really promising for our studies. We're hoping the heating pads can accelerate their growth, but if push comes to shove some groups may have to adapt and change their original protocols regarding testing on the new generation. 

May 15th Class Schedule

Time	Activity
9:00	Class debrief and discussion
9:15	Continue group work and set experimental methods (Colony maintenance done by one group)
11:00	Regroup as a class/update on current methods/design
11:10	Break
11:30	Continue group work
12:30	Discuss group progress and set next meeting agenda and goals (+ clean up)

Colony Updates

Colony maintenance was the Boldness Group's responsibility today- we collected survival data, removed dead subjects, and replaced all treatments and food. Despite decreasing numbers, we still have hope with the new generation being birthed 🤞 Though there's a lot of poor orphans...

• Soapberry Babies! Happy Birthday Rupert!

• Boxelder Babies! These guys have no parents! 🏄

Group Updates:

Boldness Group:

We continued our experiments with boldness today- this time with a beautifully crafted scrubjay made by Katie! Placing the bird in front of the tube, we measured the time it took for the bugs to crawl out, if they did. Moreover, we noticed bugs with antibiotic treatment and synthetic food are a lot more sluggish than their control counterparts- we speculate this behavior may be a product of the treatment being detrimental to their health in some form rather than simply boldness. Those from the control were a lot more reactive to the faux bird as well. Using this information we hope to finalize our procedure on measuring boldness in the next lab meeting.

Palatability Group:

"Today we decided to observe wild argentine ants’ nests to see if they eat soapberry bugs. We found that ants took the bug immediately after we cut the bugs into small pieces, including a black beetle and recently dead soapberry. We also tried dead nymphs collected on campus, and these ants grabbed it immediately. We planned to get both qualitative and quantitative data including date, time, humidity, UV, time to first find the nymphs, time when the singular ant recruited peers, time when starting to grab it, and time it took to arrive at the nest entrance. Surprisingly, the shade is necessary for ants to be active so we keep them in the shade to observe."

-Jolyn

Color Group:

Today the color group mainly focused on troubleshooting their methods/procedure and figuring out the best way to perform their tests, while practicing how to use some of their equipment. They did notice an interesting finding: two soapberry bugs they had painted entirely red started mating! By the end of Friday they hope to finalize their experimental design in order to start collecting data. 

Wildcard Group:

"Today the wild card team started on dissections! We prepped supplies and figured out logistics for dissection procedures. We collected data on bug type, sex, body length, total gut length, and individual compartment lengths. We were able to collect data on 4 soapberry bugs (RIP to a gut that ruptured). After cleaning up, We went with Marshall to the basement “lab” to start the culturing of collected guts under different dilutes; 1/10, 1/100, 1/1,000, & 1/10000. For the next class, we hope culturing starts and plan on continuing dissections!" 

- Natalia

Homework:

• Aim to start data collection on Friday!
• Utilize personal lab notebooks to keep and record findings/procedures

May 17th Class Schedule

Time	Activity
9:00	Meet at Briggs Hall Classroom
9:10	Continue group work/plan out experimental design while colony maintenance is being performed
10:00	Aim to start experiments and data collection
11:10	Break
11:30	Continue experiments
12:30	Discuss group progress and set next meeting agenda and goals (+ clean up)