jhussaini's blog

The organism is approximately the length of a nail and has thick segments running down its body. It crawls slowly around the perimeter of the container. The movement starts at one end of the organism, where red dots are located, and oscillates toward the other end to bring its entire body forward. At this other end, there is a brown tip, which moves rapidly as if the organism is getting a sense of its external environment. After it encounters debris, the organism crawls faster exerting more force as it tries to get out of the way. After moving the container to disrupt its movements, the creature becomes perfectly still for a few minutes before starting to crawl forward again. This appears to be a natural response to stress from the environment. Moving the container upside-down so that the organism crawls on the ridges of the container does not appear to change its rate of movement. This suggests that the organism applies a greater force of contraction to overcome the tension of the rough surface. Overall, the motion patterns of the organism in response to various stimuli give insight to its behavior.  

The creature is crawling slowly around the rim of the container. The movement starts at the head and oscillates toward its end as if it’s doing the wave motion. It’s moving its tail around rapidly getting a sense of its environment as it crawls. When it encounters the woody stuff it moves forward much faster and with more force trying to get it out of the way. After moving the container to disrupt its movements, the creature becomes perfectly still. But then after a few minutes it starts moving again. This seems like a typical response to stress from the environment. The creature is about the size of a nail and has many segments down its body. At the tip of one end there is a black spot. There are 2 brown dots at the other end. The back of the organism grips the floor of the container after it takes every step forward. At a slight angle the organism has difficulty crawling upwards. At a steeper angle it falls back down unable to grip the surface. Along the ridges at the top of the container it looks as if the organism has difficulty crawling forward. The oscillations along the length of the organism increase in frequency when it crawls on the ridges. It must contract with greater force to overcome tension from the rough surface. After a few minutes the organism gives up and stops moving for unknown reasons. Perhaps it is conserving energy.