Writing in Biology

An unknown organism was given for observation. The body of the creature is approximately 14mm in length and 3mm in width; it also has a flexible thin tail around 17mm long. The specimen is worm like in movement, extending and contracting its body to propel forward. It is a translucent yellow or tan color so some of the interior is visible through the first layer. Underneath this layer, it can be seen that at both ends of the body it appears to be black, while the middle body is white. At the back the darker portion extends through the tail and is exposed at the tip. The specimen is very active. At first, the organism moved along the edges of the dish it was contained in, occasionally stopping at the edge, but as time went on it tried to scale the sides of the dish more often. It would be useful to know what environment the specimen lives in and what it consumes.

After thirty minutes of observation with the creature, I compiled a list of notes that describe the organism. The organism is a larval creature, looks like a maggot with a rat-like tail. It has a pale green brown translucent layer of tissue on its main body segment that is about 1.25 cm long and 0.25 cm thick. It was hard to record an exact length, because the organism contracts and extends as it moves around the bowl. The creature has dark lines that run from a dark mass in the head of the creature to the tip of its tail. On the underside of its body, the larva has a mouth at the front that it opens whenever the organism moves. The organism has bilateral symmetry, as seen by its eight legs and two antennae on its head, which it probably uses to read its surroundings, as it does not have eyes. The larva’s tail is dark green in color and is 1.5 cm long and 0.5 mm thick. The tail is probably used for the larva to breath when it is feeding underneath a surface where there is poor oxygen.

This creature appears to be a maggot, the larval stage of a future fly. The maggot is cover in a translucent yet distorted outer casing or layer. Through this outer layer a segmented body is revealed. These segments can be seen in movement as they contract and expand to push the maggot along the surface. This may also be indicative of a possible burrowing behavior, perhaps to move soil or dirt out of the maggots path. The body is composed of two visible parts the latter half being a tail that is very resembling to that of a rat. About a millimeter or so of the thin, black tail is exposed from the casing and the tail itself can be followed all of the way up to about half of the maggots body. This indicates that the tail could be a possible breathing mechanism as it provides direct access right into the chest cavity of the maggot. The maggot contains some visible paired organs such as the two antennae that are visible atop the frontal portion of the head. There do not appear to be any set of eyes which could either suggest that they may develop later or that this maggot simply does not rely on eyesight. Legs can be seen pressed up against the sides of the casing appearing in pairs. At the front of the head an appendage can be seen occasionally protruding out which is most likely the mouth attempting to gather food. The maggot also displays an interesting defense mechanism. At any disturbance the maggot seems to freeze up and cease all movement. After the disturbance has passed for a few moments, it resumes to move around in search of either food or shelter. It is a symmetrical creature and the tail divides the entire length exactly in half. The entire maggot is about 2.5 cm long with the tail beginning at 1.25 cm. It is about 0.1 cm wide

Observations on the larvae.

Tan body color. Is capable of moving around through undulatory locomotion. It is able to contract its body in order to shorten, condense, and protect its body. When moving its body is roughly ¾ to ½ the length of the larvae’s tail. When condensed the body is roughly 1/3 to ¼ the length of the larvae’s tail. The larvae will one day metamorphosis into an insect with a different exterior morphology. It has a segmented body with 8 small bud like legs. Tail is thicker at the base than it is at the tip. Tail looks like it has a skin coat over it that is not present at the tip of the tail. The outer layer of skin is soft and elastic, allowing the organism to stretch and contract as it moves around. The outer layer of skin is also translucent and certain organs are visible. While terrestrial in nature due to the media it was found in the larvae has small dots that appear to be eyes and has a mouth both located in the cranial or rostral region. From the naked eye small brown incisors or claspers can be seen in the mouth region. This oral appendage can be used for feeding and for locomotion. The locomotion of the organism can be broken up into three steps. First, the organism stretches its head region out as far as it can, bringing it down towards the substrate and clasps onto it firmly. Second, the organism then pulls the lower half of its body towards its head region shortening its body. This sends a wave back to the base of the tail. Third, another undulatory wave from the caudal end of the organism propels forward toward the cranial region, and at the same time the claspers or incisors let go of the substrate allowing the head to extend forward. When prodding at the tail with a pencil the larvae first attempted to run away but when it found that it couldn’t get away it began rolling and thrashing wildly. When that didn’t work the larvae began to try biting and attacking the pencil. When the body is poked with a pencil it twitches violently almost jumping away from the pain. When tapping the surrounding area with the pencil the larvae stopped moving all together until the noise stopped. On the underside of the larvae a large white area can be seen in the center of the interior of the body this area could be some kind of digestive area of lymph. The body is covered in many tiny hairs. It is roughly 27mm long with its tail being 17mm long and its body being 5 to 10 mm long. Two dots in the front of the head appear to be eyes or some type of sensory organ. There is a greater distress reaction when poking the head/cranial region than there is poking the tail/caudal region. The interior of the body appears to have a few long rod shaped muscles of organs. While the body is soft and squishy it appears to be durable. Its legs are not strong enough for it to walk up completely vertical surfaces. It’s hard for the larvae to walk around on bumpy or rough surfaces so it spends a lot of time rolling around. When suspended in the air by the tip of the tail the organism showed a lack of flexibility and was unable to reach back and touch its tail. When blowing air on the organism it acted as if nothing was wrong and continued to move around normally. Where would this organism live? Possible underground, in the water or mud, maybe underground, or even up in the tree canopy. The larvae can create a good amount of force through contractions. Its best defense mechanism is to roll away. It is bilaterally symmetrical.

Initially observing this organism, one can immediately see that she has a tail much larger than the main body. Her movement is that of a worm, where she moves her back end forward and extends forward using the forward half of main body, however her tail does not seem to have any part in her movement. She has tiny bilaterally symmetric paired feet, which do not help stick to a surface as they tip over with a slight tilt of the container. She has a semi- clear outer skin on both body and tail. On the interior of the main body, passed her outer layer, the front ¾ has a white color which could be an extra layer of skin which protects her internal organs. The lower ¼ has a darker color which could signify waste or a bowel. The darkened area connects and continues inside the tail. The tip of the tail exposes this previous covered darker area from the semi- clear skin. She has an opening on the front which she is able to poke two probes out that could potentially be her mouth. When disrupted by movement, she halts as if she has sensation against predation. When on her back, she is able to wiggle her forward half to turn upright. Bodily measurements at rest of her main body is about 1.1 cm. Her tail is about 1.6 cm, giving us a whole-body length of 2.7 cm. During movement, when she is extended, the main body reaches about 1.4 cm in length with the tail the same length as when in rest. This makes her max length around 3.0 cm. When she contracts her body, it is about 1 cm in length. Her main body has a width of about .2 cm and her tail has a width of about .05cm. With the change in body lengths between movement, and through visual calculations, she moves about .3 cm each time she extends forward and then contracts her body.

The organism appears to be a bilaterally symmetrical insect larvae of some sort.  It possesses a tan coloration, with translucent dorsal and ventral sides causing the insides to be slightly visible.  This coloration might have something to do with the environment it inhabits, which may be subterranean. There exist slight ridges along the circumference of the body.  These ridges expand and contract during movement, allowing the organism to extend its body forwards in an inching fashion similar to that of a caterpillar. There appears to be 8 nubby legs that provide little traction for movement and two black spots that exist close to the rostral end of the body. The tail is much darker than that of the rest of the body and the very tip of the tail is completely black.  The 13mm long tail is roughly the same length as the 14mm body.  This comparison between tail and body length raises the question of the tail's significance to the organism's survival.  This organism appears to be blind, as obstruction of its potential viewpoint with a pen has no effect on its reaction.  The organism, however, is very shy and will cease all movement and act dead if moved or touched.  There still exist many questions about this organism that cannot be answered only through observation.  What does this organism consume, and what may consume this organism?  What type of environment does this organism inhabit?  And is this organism at one certain stage of its lifecycle?  These questions have potential answers with more in depth observation.

The organism being observed consists of a body and tail structure covered by a translucent coating. The length of both the tail and body are roughly 15mm and the height of the body is roughly 3mm. The organism is able to move in a wave-like manner, utilizing its ability to contract and expand as well as six leg-like stumps on the bottom of the organism that seem to provide added traction. The six legs counted on the bottom of the organism also seem to provide stabilization and help to turn the organism over when on its back. Also observed through the translucent underside of the organism were white intestine-like organs lining the body, that could have digestive or nervous system functions. Despite being able to move, the organism seemed to lack direction and some sensory skills, moving around the perimeter of the container primarily, and frequently running into the edge. The organism is clearly aware of its surroundings however, when the container was shaken or moved, the organism stopped moving and only resumed when presumed safe. This stopping of movement when in presumed danger could be an important mechanism for evading the detection of predators. Many questions remain about the development of the organism as well as its habitat, place in its ecosystem and sensory and physiological capabilities. 

The specimen being observed is quite small, about 3 centimeters long. It is shaped like a small bean that is about 1.25 centimeters, with a long tail which accounts for the majority of the organism’s length. The organism appears to be semitransparent, with a taupe hue. Looking down on it closely, you can see small organs, and its digestive processes working. The small creature appears to eat sawdust, and was covered in it when delivered to my petri dish. Additionally, at the opposite end of its tail, it has a small hole that looks as if it is its mouth. Its movements are reminiscent of that of a caterpillar, that extends and recoils in order to traverse its path. The organism has eight nubby legs, that are in sets of two parallel to one another and also used to aid movement. At the top of its head, it appears to have small sensor like buds as well. With regards to its activity level, I would say it is quite high. The organism has crawled out of the petri dish independently multiple times, in order to escape its enclosure. However, when touched by myself or another object, it freezes all movement and appears still, stiff and dead. Overall, this organism is quite fascinating in its anatomy and behavior, and interesting to observe.

I observed an unknown organism in a clear container. The organism has a translucent coating that surrounds its organs. The length of its tail is about the same length as the rest of its body which was about 15 mm. There are two tiny protrusions sticking out from the front of its body that resembles a mouth or antennae. It has tiny legs on its belly that it uses to crawl in a worm-like way. The creature does so by contracting the front part of the body first and following through with the rest of its body in to move around. The only part of the organism’s body that wasn’t covered by the translucent coating was the very end of its tail. It kept trying to escape the container resulting in many failed attempts. It finally succeeded after one hour of crawling and flipping over on itself.

After closely observing and using the tools given to me I have concluded that it is some larvae like creature. The organism contains a tail, what appears to be little legs in pairs, and the body is covered in a layer of tissue. The tail attached to the specimen reminds me of a flagellum. This makes me conclude that the tail contributes to the organism’s movement and could also be of use for sensing the environment. It scrunches in and then out to continue moving around the tray. In addition, it has a light brown color that is transparent and one could see the inside of the organism. It has a white core inside it and a layer over it to protect the main body. The organism moves around the specimen tray to get a sense of its new environment and its surroundings. It is bilaterally symmetrical. It’s layer of tissue surrounding it appears to be sticky since the bits of shredded tree bark stick to the organism. The body is about 1.5 cm long. The tail came out to be about 1.6 cm. A total of about 3.1 cm long in length. It is a small organism whose defenses seem to be minimal.  Some of the questions that arose while observing were what kind of environment is preferable for the organism to sustain life? What is it closely related to? What kinds of foods does it eat? Is it an herbivore or a carnivore? What is its method of reproduction? Is it a male or female? Is the tail essential?