Writing in Biology

The specimen has a segmented body, with about 10 segments in all. The specimen is bilaterally symmetrical along the anterior-posterior axis, meaning that if the specimen were to be folded along just this axis, two similar sides will be observed. The anterior end is the side on which the specimen undergoes forward motion; conversely, the posterior side is opposite. Posteriorly, there are two dot-like structures that are actually spiracles. They are the respiratory apparatus of the specimen. The ends of the specimen appear to be darker that the more medial segments. As such, the medial parts are more translucent. The specimen is responsive to visual stimulus (flashes of light), indicating the presence of visual-sensory apparatus. Superficially, the specimen appears to be a light brownish color. Relative to its surrounding, the specimen appears to move in a transverse wave-like manner while also employing some elements of longitudinal wave motion along its anterior-posterior axis. The internal organs of the specimen appear to be surrounded by exoskeleton.

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. 

Observations:

-worm/caterpillar-like

-segmented body

-tan color, dark brown head

-small dots along body

-body not rigid

-diamond shape

-markings

-plain

-body contorts into “C” shape

-legs differents shapes and sizes

The object has a caterpillar-like, worm resemblance. The body is segmented into several sections that make up one body. The body itself is tan/light-brown in color, and the head looks more rigid in consistency than the body. The front anterior legs have a pointed shape while the posterior legs which are flatter and look like suction cups, perhaps to better grip surfaces for climbing branches or leaves. There also appear to be several black spots along the side of the body. The body has small black hair-like structures along the side of its body, most likely for sensing. The body takes on a diamond-like shape.

    Behavior-wise, the body moves very fluidly, each of the segments moving in a wave-like fashion to propel the organism forward. The anterior side continues to rear up on its hind legs, perhaps to gain a better glimpse of its surroundings. Along these lines, it has large eyes in the front of the head, which most likely suggest it uses its visual sense primarily. Judging by its body movements, the organism does not move quickly. The organism also has field markings on the posterior side of its head, as to ward off predators. The body does not respond to stimuli well. The anterior head and posterior segment of the organism appear to move independently of one another. It only moves along the outer ring of the cup. Upon movement of the cup it freezes.

The organism has an elongated, beige body approximately one inch in length, that includes ten segments. It also displays bilateral symmetry. It achieves movement by extending and contracting its body in a manner similar to a worm, with its narrower, end facing forward, and its wider end at the rear. The organism has black markings on its anterior end and two brown dots on its posterior end. There is also a long dark mark extending down the midline of the body. The exterior of the body reflects light and appears opaque. The organism generally moves in a circle around the outer perimeter of the plastic container, and occasionally rears its anterior end. It seems to struggle more to move over the wood chips than the plastic, and I observed it attempt to push wood chips out of its path.

This is a yellow-tinged, cream-colored larvae that is approximately 3 centimetres long with six legs (three on the left side and three on the right, and two per segment of body) at the front of the body. There are 8 stub-like structures on segments 6-9 of the body that do not move (4 on the left, 4 on the right, 2 per segment) and 2 stubs on the end of the last segment (12th segment) that move independently. It has a dark brown head, and the first segment after the head is a lighter brown color. On the head, two eyes are visible and two hair like structures protrude from the side of each eye (perhaps antennae?) It has a brown dot on both sides (left and right) of segments 4-11 (could be pores?). The latter third of the body seems to move independently from the rest of the body. The larvae moves very slowly, if at all, which may indicate that it is nearing the pupal stage of life.

What appeared in my container was a seemingly simple, elongate insect in an early stage of its life cycle, perhaps its larval state. This organism was beige in color with a dark brown coloration at its head. This insect consisted of a head with a mouth and no eyes, a 3-4 cm long body separated into about 12 segments with 6 legs very proximal to its head, and a caudal end with what looked like two separate appendages sticking out at the end. This organism moves by first feeling its immediate surroundings with its true legs, then contracting, sending a wave from the caudal end of its body to the rostral end, grabbing the ground with pro-legs found near the middle and back of the ventral side of its body. Other notable visual characteristics include the dark coloration of the legs and the tiny dark spots that are present on either side of each segment of its body. There are no notable smells or sounds coming from the organism.

The organism placed in front of me appears to be a larva of some sort and is beige in color. It is in a small, transparent, cylindrical container that has three pieces of what look like wood chips inside. The larva moves along the outer rim of the container through a peristaltic motion and continually walks over these wood chips. The larva has three apparent black spots on the left side of its abdomen towards the end of its body. Upon closer examination, the larva has approximately 13 smaller black dots along each side of its body, corresponding to each of its sections. The larva’s head is brown and moves in space around the container, possibly in an attempt to discern its surroundings. At the tip of the head, the brown region turns into a darker shade. The tail of the larva is the same beige color as the body, although there are two small black dots on the end. When the larva moves, the tail inches forwards first and then the rest of the body moves forward to compensate for the difference, creating a wave-like motion that propels the larva ahead. The larva moves relatively slow around the outside rim but is not limited to this pace. At times, the larva sticks its tail into the air, but does not move it around as much as its head. Perhaps this is another strategy to sense its surroundings. The larva has approximately seven pairs of legs underneath, three pairs in the front half of the body and four pairs in the back half. It is important to note that the middle section of the larva does not have any pairs of legs, this encompasses approximately two of its sections. The front and back legs are different, the front ones are longer and brown while the back ones are shorter and black. The back legs are more stub-like, which could be a trait that helps the larva grip the surface it is moving on since the back end of the body is the first to move forward. This way, the larva can maintain its forward motion and not be moved backwards as a result of the front of the body moving. The longer front legs could be for more of a sensory purpose, they seem to move around a fair amount as the larva moves along the outer rim of the container. Upon closer examination of the top of the larva, it appears slightly translucent. There are two gray lines running on either side inside the larva with a white section in the middle. This discrepancy is more apparent when the larva moves.

This is a yellow-tinged, cream-colored larvae that is approximately 3 centimetres long with six legs (three on the left side and three on the right, and two per segment of body) at the front of the body. There are 8 stub-like structures on segments 6-9 of the body that do not move (4 on the left, 4 on the right, 2 per segment) and 2 stubs on the end of the last segment (12th segment) that move independently. It has a dark brown head, and the first segment after the head is a lighter brown color. On the head, two eyes are visible and two hair like structures protrude from the side of each eye (perhaps antennae?) It has a brown dot on both sides (left and right) of segments 4-11 (could be pores?). The latter third of the body seems to move independently from the rest of the body. The larvae moves very slowly, if at all, which may indicate that it is nearing the pupal stage of life.

The organism in the container has a long, stretchy segmented body. The skin is tanish in most areas and is slightly translucent. Along its segments, a dark brown or black dot can be seen on either side, showcasing its symmetry. It has 6 front legs before its 4th segment which are then followed by stubby extentions of back segments. These extensions help to move it in a wave like fashion. Its face is dark brown contrasting the light color of the body and features 2 large eyes and a seemingly small mouth. The worm appears to use its head (eyes and mouth) to study its surroundings. It also has tiny hairs along its bodyand face that could possibly be used as sensory organs. Moving the container to a different spot on the desk seemed to halt the worm/larva for a bit, allowing it to survey its surroundings again before resuming its movement. I also observed it moving backwards towards the end of the observation time which I though was strange as it hadn't for the 30 minute time frame. Also it was very fast mpving. constaintly running into what I assumed was its food. It would stop every once in a while to poke at it but not eat it, so maybe it was was too stimulate d or stressed at the moment to eat.