Biology Industrial Melanism of Peppered Moth Lab

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Biology Lab

Industrial Melanism and the Peppered Moth

Design

Question

How might the appearance of individuals influence their likelihood of being seen and eaten by predators? What influence might natural selection have on survival from predators?

Hypothesis

The appearance of individual will influence their likelihood of being seen and eaten by predators. In the case of different moths, there will be more of melanic moths on dark-coloured tree bark, more light-coloured moths on light-coloured tree bark and intermediate-coloured tree bark. This is because of their ability to camouflage in those habits and therefore have higher survival rates from predators. As the opposite colour of moth from its habit dies off, natural selection will favour the moths that can camouflage to its surroundings.

Variables

The independent variable of the experiment is the light and dark-colour “tree bark”. The dependent variable is the percentage of light-coloured and melanic moths. The control is the intermediate-colour of the tree bark and the time of 4 seconds

Materials

Light-coloured “tree bark”

Intermediate-coloured “tree bark”

Dark-coloured “tree bark”

30 light-coloured paper “moths”

30 melanic paper “moths”

Stopwatch

Paper

Pencil

Procedure

  1. A group of three was formed.
  2. Materials needed were gathered.
  3. The roles of the Predator, the Assistant and the Timer were taken
  4. The Assistant placed 15 light-coloured and 15 melanic moths randomly on a light-coloured “tree bark” background while the Predator was turned around.
  5. The Predator turned around at the Timer’s yell of “hunt” to remove moths for 4 seconds until the Timer’s yell of “stop”
  6. The number of light-coloured and melanic moths removed was. The Assistant replaces each melanic moths with a light-coloured moths and vice versa. The number of light-coloured and melanic moths was recorded
  7. Steps 4-6 were repeated on an intermediate-coloured background and dark coloured background.
  8. Materials were returned to where they belong

Data Collection and Processing

Raw Data Tables

Table 1. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 2. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 3. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 4. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 5. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 6. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 7. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 8. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 9. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 10. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Light-Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 11. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Dark- Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 12. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Dark- Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 13. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Dark- Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 14. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Dark- Coloured “Tree Bark”

Table 15. Number of Melanic Moths and Light-Coloured Moths left on Dark- Coloured “Tree Bark”

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Qualitative Data

On the light-coloured “tree bark” the predator often captured the moths that were closer in distance and of the melanic moths that did not camouflage well with the background. As the experiment progressed, there were more light-coloured moths than melanic moths.

On the dark-coloured “tree bark” the predator also captured the moths that were closer in distance but more of the light-coloured moths. After five trials, there were more melanic moths and light-coloured moths. With the intermediate-coloured “tree bark” the closest moth to the predator were also captured. The different colours of moths were equally ...

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