The Malpighian tubules of insects are an excellent model for examining the properties of secretion in a transporting epithelium. In this exercise students expose tubules from cockroaches or crickets to chlorophenol red and visually estimate the dye concentration in the lumen. By adding metabolic inhibitors and competitors or by substituting ion-free media they can demonstrate competition, specificity, and energy- or ion-dependence of active transport. Advanced students can design their own experiments after a review of the literature. This simple and inexpensive exercise provides students with a challenging and rewarding introduction to experimental design in the laboratory.

There are many reasons to seek alternatives to the use of vertebrates, including cost and concerns with use of vertebrates in undergraduate laboratories. This major workshop explores examples of alternatives, including: a) an exploration of thermoregulation without using animals at all, b) an investigation of actomyosin function and membrane excitation using giant alga, and c) using insects to investigate taste receptors and digestion. This workshop explores the importance of providing good background information to vertebrate processes and connecting the alternative experimental system to homologous physiological processes in vertebrates. Students can appreciate the commonality in biological processes and the importance of underlying physiological principles.

This exercise is designed to familiarize the student with ethology, the study of animal behavior, by observing the behavior of several different arthropods.

This lab exercise tests the ecological principle of energy flow in a laboratory setting using roaches as an experimental secondary producer. Energy use is measured by respiration, energy storage by growth, and energy input as ingestion minus feces. The laws of thermodynamics state that energy intake should equal energy output; accuracy of measurements can therefore be determined. Growth rates, respiratory rates, and ingestion rates can be compared for different size classes. The exercise lasts four weeks allowing students to take part in a structured research project in which they must handle data and compare results to their own hypotheses and values found in the literature.

Water quality monitoring activities can support student inquiry into ecological concepts and pollution issues, as well as offer insight into integrating field and lab work. This exercise provides students with practice in identification (to order or family level) of stream macroinvertebrates that they've previously collected. Provided information indicates water pollution tolerance of the various taxa. Students use the data to calculate several different biotic indices for the macroinvertebrates; these are compared to express overall stream water quality. Ideas for possible extensions of this activity are presented.

In the complex life cycle of a digenetic trematode, the cercaria larva is shed from a snail intermediate host and represents a short-lived, aquatic transfer stage to the next host. Due to its temporary free-living existence, the cercarial stage is ideal for a number of investigative projects. Two general experiments will be conducted with the unusually large cercaria of Proterometra macrostoma. Students assess the effect of: (1) different light wavelengths on the vertical swimming burst distance of this type of cercaria and (2) pH and pepsin on the emergence of the P. macrostoma distome (pre-adult) from its cercarial tail. The latter study represents an in vitro simulation of what naturally occurs in the stomach of the centrarchid fish definitive host.

This experiment is meant to study water regulation in mollusks by observing the reaction of slugs, which are closely related to mollusks, to excess water.

Methods for the collection and the culturing of a variety of experimental organisms used in teaching biology are discussed. The organisms include protozoans, hydra, planaria, vinegar eels, aquatic snails, Daphnia, brine shrimp, frogs, turtles, flesh flies, and Tenebrio. Culturing parameters, overall care, handling, diet, feeding procedures, and specific environmental conditions are examined.

This resource is a detailed manual of protocols and instructional information for carrying out an undergraduate laboratory exercise in invertebrate biology and animal physiology, including student outlines, instructors notes, and detailed introductory laboratory exercises to ensure that students have the skills necessary for carrying out the lab.

Molecular biological techniques are used to study naturally occurring genetic variation, and have greatly facilitated the understanding of problems in many areas of biology. In this lab, we examine two populations of terrestrial isopods in the Family Armadillidiidae using Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA (RAPD Analysis). RAPDs are robust and generally species-independent. Using this technique, we are able to detect and analyze genetic variation within and between two different populations of isopods. This lab exercise could easily be modified for use in an introductory course for majors or non-majors and would be suitable for any organism with low vagility.

The instructor's section of this chapter considers some of the general challenges associated with converting a descriptive laboratory exercise to an inquiry exercise. It also contains the detailed methods of our current version of this animal behavior investigation. The second major section of this chapter contains the current student's version of this exercise. In this section students are led through initial observations of crickets and through the process of hypothesis formation about relationships between dominance hierarchies and mating behaviors. They then design and conduct an experiment using crickets to evaluate their hypothesis.

This exercise uses brainstorming, writing, and oral presentation techniques within the framework of a laboratory to illustrate the basic principles of early development. In groups, students learn how to identify a good model system (the sea urchin), isolate its gametes, mix some gametes from each sex, and study the ensuing processes of fertilization and development. After being introduced to the basic techniques, student groups design their own experimental approaches to further analyze these processes.

The venom of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, contains numerous enzymes, volatiles, and other components. Allergic individuals develop anti-venom antibodies which may cause hives, anaphylactic shock, and death. In this exercise students detect concentrations of bee venom on nitrocellulose membranes following incubation of membranes with anti-venom antibodies, enzyme-conjugated secondary antibodies, and a colorimetric substrate. The intensity of the colored substrate deposited on the membrane is proportional to the original concentrations of bee venom spotted on the membrane. Students are introduced to micropipetting and to the concept of detection limits while learning about allergy and immunoassays.

In performing this exercise students will become familiar with forming, analyzing, proposing, and testing hypotheses and will begin thinking about how ecological principles operate in real systems.

The exercise will introduce the students to using chemical surgery as well as demonstrate the function of insect juvenile hormone and naturally occurring compounds in the interaction between insects and host plants.

Insect predators use one of three general feeding strategies with associated morphologies (mandibles, raptorial forelegs, and unmodified legs) to capture prey. Evolutionarily, species subjected to strong predation pressure may respond by developing defenses (including poison) or by producing more offspring. This exercise examines the interplay between three potential prey species and three insect predator types played by the students. Simulations are conducted over 5 to 10 generations with changes in population size being tracked. In response to foraging, one prey type becomes poisonous, one prey type becomes semi-poisonous, and one prey type remains palatable. To simulate the cost of defense, prey reproduction rate is dependent on the level of prey defense. Co-evolution and predator specialization are simulated by allowing one predator type to adapt to poisonous prey species.

Studies of invertebrate locomotion and biomechanics provide unusual opportunities to interrelate biology, physics, and math in engaging ways. The authors have produced an original videotape and CD, entitled, "Invertebrate LocOlympics," which document locomotion in numerous invertebrates including: nematode, oligochaetes, leech, Daphnia, ostracod, copepod, centipede, millipede, and springtail. This documentation, together with the following write-up, allow quantitative investigation and analysis of several types of locomotion, namely: undulatory swimming, swimming with appendages, walking, running, jumping, ciliary gliding, and others. Direct measurements from freeze-frame video or PowerPoint file images (on CD) allow inter-species comparisons of movement trajectory, forward velocity, wave velocity, wave frequency, and Reynolds Numbers.

A laboratory exercise to investigate immune response to bacterial infection using tobacco hornworms.

Gregarines are members of the Phylum Apicomplexa that parasitize invertebrates. All of the Apicomplexans are parasitic and include some of medical and veterinary importance (e.g., malaria). Gergarines may be safely studied in highly parasizited hosts such as earthworms and mealworms that are readily available from bait shops and pet stores. Various life cycle stages are easily visible under the dissecting microscope in student laboratories.