School Science Lessons
Biology experiments
Updated: 2008-12-21
Please send comments to: J.Elfick@uq.edu.au
9.1.1 Bird study
See diagram 9.1 | See diagram 9.1.1    |  See diagram 9.1.2 | See diagram 9.1.3
9.1 Study beak types and observe the feeding behaviour of birds with a particular type of beak. Investigate different beak uses.
9.2 Study feet types and observe the behaviour of birds with particular feet type, e.g. wading, walking, swimming, perching, hunting, and carrying objects. Many birds use their feet in perching or grasping, e.g. the woodpecker. Other birds use their feet primarily for walking, e.g. quail. Water fowl have webbed feet for wading and swimming, e.g. ducks, pelicans. Hunting birds have large talons, e.g. hawks, owls.
9.3 Make casts of foot imprints found in soft soil or mud. Use cardboard, paper clips, plaster of Paris and a spoon. Form a cylinder with cardboard and a paper clip. Put the cylinder around a track. Pour a plaster of Paris into the cylinder. When the plaster hardens, a raised or negative print of the track forms. Use the negative print to make a positive print. Organize casts into categories based upon use or function.
See 3.67: Strength of plaster of Paris
9.4 Observe the activities of birds in nests but do disturb the nesting behaviour of the birds.
See diagram 9.1.4: Parrots
 Observe nest building, bird habits and the materials used. Abandoned nests reveal detail of construction and small organisms that live in the nesting materials. After hatching, observe the feeding and care of young. Note how defence of its territory by a bird is an important behaviour in limiting the bird population in a given area. Note aggressive bird behaviour in nesting and feeding areas. Be careful! Nesting birds may attack children.
9.5 Birds may be attracted by houses that will help their nest building behaviour.
See diagram 9.1.5: Bird houses
The internal size must be suitable for the nest of the bird. The entry hole must be of appropriate size. Leave the interior unpainted. Put the house where the bird will use it and at the proper height above the ground. Small houses with tiny openings lure small birds. For example, a house for wrens should be 10 cm by 10 cm by 12 cm, with an opening hole 2.5 cm diameter. Some birds will nest in an open structure, e.g. the robin. Some birds need a house that resembles a tree trunk and has an opening 10 cm across, e.g. screech owls.
9.6 Make feeders to attract birds
Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when building these feeders. Handle metal netting, wire and tin with care. Always cut away from the body.
1. Mixed seeds and suet (sheep kidney fat) attract many bird types at all seasons of the year. Bird feeders attract not only birds but also small mammals, e.g. mice and squirrels. Observe food preferences, times of feeding activity, and other behaviours.
2. Make a cubical suet cage from metal netting and nail it to a tree or post. When cutting the metal netting, leave wire lengths protruding to be bent over adjoining squares to hold the sides together. Leave the front panel free at the top so that it may be opened to replace the suet. Fasten the closed cage with wire loops.
3. Make an open bird feeder from wood or metal scrap with a roof to keep snow and rain off the seeds. Construct sides to the feeder to prevent birds from kicking out the seed mixture while searching for their favourite types of seed.
4. Make another metal bird feeder by cutting out both ends of a coffee tin, and attaching a cake pan under it with stiff wire. Make a plastic lid to fit over the top and hang from a branch with wire.
9.7 Butterfly life cycle
See diagram 9.7: Butterfly life cycle
Put caterpillars in a box and feed daily on fresh leaves, e.g. silkworms on mulberry leaves. Observe and record the development of the caterpillars each day. Record all changes from caterpillar to cocoon to the fully developed butterfly phase. Note the time required for the individual phases. Release the fully developed butterflies.
9.8 Mosquito life cycle, Culex
See diagram 9.8: Mosquito life cycle
1. Collect the different stages of the mosquito life cycle: eggs, pupae, larvae, male and female adults. The eggs usually cluster together to form a raft. The pupa is unusual because it can wriggle. Keep the different stages in a large screw-top jar or an aquarium with a glass top. Put waterweed in the jar or aquarium. Do not allow adult mosquitoes to fly out and bite people because of the diseases carried by mosquitoes.
2. The mosquito can most easily be controlled during the larva stage when it lives in water for a long time. Draining the water or adding insecticide to the water kill the larvae and control mosquitoes.
3. Observe diagrams of the Anopheles mosquito that carries malaria fever caused by the parasitic protozoan Plasmodium. Discuss how to control mosquitoes near the home.
9.9 Body of cockroach or grasshopper
See diagram 9.9.0: Insect general body plan, vertical section | See diagram 9.9.1: Cockroach | See diagram 9.9.2: Grasshopper | See diagram 9.9.3: Mouthparts | See diagram 9.9.4: Wings
Structure of insects
The body is divided into three regions, head, thorax and abdomen
1. The head, the neck is flexible in predators, e.g. praying mantis
1.1 Compound eye made of separate units (ommatidia) to provide "mosaic" vision. Each ommatidium has an outer lens, seen as a facet and light sensitive organ. Number of facets per eye: house fly 4 000 facets, butterfly 20 000, dragonfly 25 000. Insect eye can detect movement but cannot focus. Most insects cannot distinguish separate colours but how colours reflect ultraviolet light. Most insects are attracted to ultraviolet light. so UV light electric "insect zappers" are found in food shops. In the head of some insects are three ocelli, structures to determine light intensity.
1.2 Mouthparts have 3 pairs of jaws:
1.2.1 Mandibles for biting and chewing, with flap above (labrum) as an upper lip
1.2.2 Maxillae can hold food and have sensory palps
1.2.3 Labium acts as a lower lip but may be modified to form long feeding tubes, e.g. sucking bugs (hemiptera) mosquito
The mayfly has no mouthparts, so it cannot feed.
1.3 One pair of jointed antennae, organs of touch and smell.
Mobile filaments made up of segments linked by membranous joints.
Long where sense of touch is important, e.g. cockroach.
Short where sight more important, e.g. dragonfly
End of filament modified as flattened leafy plates, e.g. scarab beetle, club at end, butterfly, elbowed shape, e.g. ants, feathery branched, e.g. emperor moth
2. The thorax, 3 segments fused to each other, prothorax pair of  legs, mesothorax pair of  legs, pair of fore wings  meta thorax pair of legs, pair of hind wings
2.1 Three pairs of jointed walking legs that end in claws, one pair on each thoracic segment
Legs modified for digging, e.g. mole cricket, swimming, e.g. waterboatman, seizing prey, e.g. praying mantis, jumping, e.g. cricket
2.2 Two pairs of wings, if present, are on the second, or second and third, thoracic segments
The different arrangements of wings include the following:
2.2.1 Wings membranous flap supported by network of "veins" with arrangement characteristic of different insects
2.2.2 All 4 wings are used in flight to beat independently, e.g. dragon fly or pairs of wings joined to beat as one wing, e.g. bee, butterfly, moth
2.2.3 Fore-wings are thickened and hind-wings can be folded under them, e.g. locust, grasshopper or modified to form protective shield not used in flight (elytra), e.g. beetle.
2.2.4 House flies have hind wings modified as knobs (halteres).
2.2.5 Flightless insects have no wings, e.g. fleas, lice, some sucking bugs.
3. Abdomen, 11 segments or less  or fused, joined by thin membrane, no appendages for locomotion on the abdomen
3.1 At apex male genitalia including claspers formating
3.2 At end  female egg-laying organ (ovipositor) or modified to form a sting, e.g. bee, ant, wasp.
3.3 Anus at end with on each side are segmented cerci, like small antennae, but they can be modified to form forceps, e.g. earwig.
4. Respiration uses spiracles laterally situated on some of the body segments and leading into the tracheal system of tubes inside the body.
5. Chitinous exoskeleton
Exoskeleton (cuticle) made mainly of chitin is hard, strong and impermeable
Observe the head, antennas, compound eyes, mouth parts, three pairs of jointed legs, thorax, pairs of wings, abdomen, openings along the side of the abdomen for breathing, wing veins that support the wings and keep the wings rigid when flying.
8. Examine the body structure of the cockroach with a magnifying glass. Hold a female cockroach with forceps, by one of its legs so that it can be turned right round and inspected. Repeat the examination with a male cockroach. Note the differences between the male and the female cockroaches from both dorsal and ventral views. Note where the legs are attached to the abdomen. Note whether the three pairs of legs all have the same design. Note the wings attached to the abdomen, the antennas and the two large eyes on the head.
9. Examine prepared slides showing various parts of the head of cockroach or find the mouth parts folded under the head and pointing backwards. Using a fume cupboard, fume hood, detach the head and boil it in 5% potassium hydroxide solution. Detach the mouth parts with forceps and dehydrate with methylated spirit in a watch glass, then add some xylol. Make a circle with a polystyrene mounting medium on a microscope slide. Arrange the mouth parts within the circle then put on a coverslip.
Note how the mouth parts are modified for biting and crushing. Identify the upper lip hinged to the lower portion of the face, a pair of mandibles (first pair of jaws) at the sides of the mouth, a second pair of jaws behind the first pair, and the lower lip.
9.10 Frog life cycle
See diagram 9.310: Frog life cycle
Put a clump of frog spawn the size of a fist into an aquarium. At least half the water in the aquarium should come from the place where the frog spawn was found. The water must be kept clean throughout the period of observation. When the water becomes cloudy, replace a part so that it is always clear. Algae will develop on the inside of the glass providing nutrients for the young frog larvae. Give as much commercial fish food as the frog larvae, tadpoles, can eat in half an hour. Remove any food uneaten at the end of this time with the sludge extractor to prevent it decomposing and clouding the water. Observe the development of the frog larvae and tadpoles daily. When the tadpoles have legs, put a small floating piece of cork or foam plastic on the surface of the water in the aquarium, so that they can leave the water when necessary. Release the fully developed young frogs when the observations have been completed.
Note the following:
1. Frog's egg in the gelatinous capsule
2. Young larva in the capsule
3. Larva with a tail, a young tadpole, that has emerged from the capsule
4. Large tadpole without legs
5. Tadpole with hind legs
6. Tadpole with hind legs and forelegs
7. Small young frog with the remains of a tail
8. Fully-developed young frog
9.11 Study an unfertilized chicken egg
See diagram 9.11: Parts of an egg
Put a flat transparent dish on black paper. Break open a hen's egg. Note the yellow yolk and the clear part called the "white" of an egg because it turns white when cooked. Find a small white patch on the yolk. In the centre of this white patch, too small to see with the eyes, is the germinal disc, the blastoderm, a sheet of cells that becomes the embryo chicken. The yolk is a food store, mainly protein and fat. The yoke is enclosed in a yolk membrane. The albumen, "egg white", is a solution of mainly the protein albumin. It is a store of water and protein. The chalaza is one of a pair of twisted cords of albumin at each end of the egg. It supports the yolk centrally within the shell. The shell membrane consists of two membranes that prevent evaporation of water. At one end of the egg the two layers separate to form the air sac that allows the baby chick to take its first breath before it breaks open the shell. The shell is mainly spongy calcium carbonate.
9.12 Make a cardboard box incubator
See diagram 9.12 Simple incubator
Use a large and small cardboard box. Cut one end from the small box. Cut a 15 cm2 window in a side of the large box. Cut a slit in the top of the smaller box and suspend an electric lamp in it by a long electric cord. Put the small box inside the larger box and pack newspaper between them. The open end of the small box must fit against the side of the large box with the window. Put a thermometer in the box where it can be read through the glass window.
9.13 Make a Styrofoam cool box incubator
See diagram 9.13: Electric incubator
Punch a hole in the side of a Styrofoam box to fit a 40-watt light bulb socket. Be careful! The light bulb socket is an electrical and fire hazard. Keep the incubator away from liquids or wet areas and out of direct sunlight. Put aluminium foil on the bottom of the box. Put a piece of wire mesh across the box. Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling wire mesh. Make air holes in the sides and in the lid of the incubator. Also, make a hole in the Styrofoam for a thermometer. Maintain a constant temperature of 38oC in the incubator for 21 days. Use different sizes of light bulbs and change the lining newspaper to regulate the temperature. Put a dish of water in the incubator to keep the relative humidity at 55%.
9.14 Study the development of the chicken embryo
See: Chicken project
Obtain fertile eggs from a chicken or from a poultry farmer with roosters in their flocks and immediately put the eggs on their sides inside the incubator at a temperature that should always be close to 38oC. Eggs sold in stores or supermarkets are usually infertile. The relative humidity should be 55% so put a pan of water or a wet sponge in the incubator. Turn the eggs three times a day until day 18 to stop the yolk sticking to the shell. Put a pencilled cross on the egg each time you turn it and move the eggs to different places. Monitor the development of the chicks by "candling". Hold the large end of the egg up to an electric light in a dark room after the 4th day of incubation. The egg contents are pink when the embryo is developing properly. As the embryo grows, it occupies more of the space within the shell until near hatching it occupies all of the space except for the air cell. Remove the eggs if they appear clear (infertile eggs) or if they do not show much development at 10 days (dead embryos). The air cell increases in size during incubation depending on temperature and humidity as moisture evaporates from the egg. Note the heart of the developing chick already beating by day 7. After three days, remove one egg and crack it open carefully. Put the contents into a shallow saucer. A three-day embryo will usually show the heart already beating. It may continue to beat for half an hour. Remove an egg at day 7 and day 10 to study the development of the embryo. Leave the remainder of the eggs for 21 days to hatch. Listen to the eggs during the final 3 days. When cracks or a little hole appears at day 21, the chicken is about to hatch. Do try to help the chick out of the shell even if it takes a day to get out. The chick cracks the egg with its egg tooth, a hard lump on its beak. Find the egg tooth in a chick. When the chicks have dried and become fluffy, remove them from the incubator.
9.15 Measure the eggs
See diagram 9.11: Parts of an egg | See diagram: 50.6:5: Measure the egg
Keep records of the eggs during the 21 days to hatching.
Each day do the following:
1.  weigh the fertilized eggs,
2.  measure the length of the egg with a pair of callipers,
3.  Record the measurement in a table.
 Examine the tables and note whether the weight and length change. Weight is lost when food is broken down during respiration to carbon dioxide and water that can both diffuse out through the egg membranes and the shell.
9.16 Make a warm brooder
See diagram 9.16: Feeders and drinkers, holding a chick
A hen sits on eggs keeps them warm. When the chickens hatch, they huddle under the hen for warmth and protection. If there is no mother hen, keep the chickens warm with a 100 watt bulb in a brooder. Do not let the chickens touch the light bulb. Reduce the temperature each week by 3°C from 37°C to 21°C. Give the chickens food and clean water. Use shallow dishes for the food and water. Put sawdust or straw in the brooder to absorb droppings. At first give the chickens a handful of chicken mash. Add more food to the dish each day and always provide clean water. Keep the brooder clean.
9.17 Study the development of the hatched chickens
Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling the chickens
See diagram 9.17.1: Feathers | See diagram 9.17.2: Feathering record
Keep a chicken diary to record the weight, height and behaviour of the chicken each day for the first three weeks.
1. Weigh a newly hatched chicken and record the weight in a table. Plot a graph of the changes in weight.
2. Use callipers to measure the height of the chicken from the top of its head to its feet.
3. Describe the change in colour, shape and development of its feathers.
4. Describe how the chicken walks when it first hatches and how this walk changes later.
5.  Describe its "cheep" cry when newly hatched and how its voice changes later.
6.  Describe how it pecks at its food, and drinks its water.
9.18 Find the sex of the chickens
Turn the chicken over in the palm of the hand with its head pointing towards you. Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling the chickens. Try to find the opening underneath its tail. Use the thumbs to fold down the feathers. Fold the skin down around the opening but do not press too hard. If the chicken is a male, see the penis like a small piece of thread. The chicken is a female if the penis cannot be seen.
9.19 Insect collecting
Collecting from animals, parasitic insects
Collecting from bark
Collecting from birds' nests
Collecting from carcasses
Collecting from dung
Collecting from emergence boxes
Collecting from flight, only adult insects, use a butterfly net, use a light trap
Collecting from flowers, shake flowers over an umbrella, also some small insects inside flower buds
Collecting from foliage, hold an unbrella under foliage and beat the foliage to dislodge the insects, eggs can also be collected from foliage
Collecting from fruit, keep fruit in a container to allow adyult insects to emerge
Collecting from fungus
Collecting from galls
Collecting from leaf litter
Collecting from leaves, larvae of leaf miners leave snake-like markings on the leaves, pick leaf and keep fresh for adult to appear
Collecting from roots
Collecting from soil
Collecting from stones and rocks
Collecting from water, aquatic insects
Collecting from wood, dead wood
9.20 Insect collecting nets, air net, sweep net
Air net
To make an insect air net, use a broomstick, heavy wire and mosquito netting. Bend a heavy piece of wire into a circle 45 cm in diameter, and twist the ends together to form a straight section 15 cm in length. Fasten this to the end of a broom handle with a wire. Cut a piece of mosquito netting to form a net 75 cm deep and fasten to the circular wire frame with stitches. Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling heavy pieces of wire.
Sweep net
Make a sweep net with muslin and very heavy wire that will not bend when the net is swept through grass. Sweep by working back and forth over a measured area. Count the net contents to estimate the number of insects between the soil surface and the grass tops. To find the relative numbers of insects, sample the school grounds, a farm field, an abandoned field, forest floor or other natural areas. Before the sweeping of vegetation, make small cages for crickets or grasshoppers with metal insect netting. Be careful! Use safety glasses and thick gloves when handling metal netting. Put grass, water and a small dish of moist sand in each cage. Females may lay eggs in the sand.
9.21 Insect-killing container
Obtain a wide mouth glass container with a screw top or one that closes very tightly. Put a cotton wad in the bottom of the container and cover it with a round piece of cardboard or absorbent paper that has several holes punched through it. When the container is used, saturate the cotton wad with an insecticide. Put the piece of cardboard over the cotton wad and then put the insect in the jar. Close the container tightly and leave until the insect is dead. Use a large container if collecting moths or butterflies to avoid damaging the wings.
9.22 Insect stretching board  (setting  board)
See diagram 9.22: Insect stretching board (setting board) | See diagram 9.22.1: Insect cages
Use an insect stretching board to prepare insects for mounting. Make the stretching board from flat cork sheets or soft wood split into two equal parts with a space 1 cm wide between them. Fit the cork sheets into a flat cardboard or wooden box. Put the body of the insect in the space and pin the wings on the top with strips of paper held by pins pushed into the cork but not through the wings.
9.23 Mounting boxes for insect collections
Use wood boxes for keeping insect collections. After removing the insect from the stretching board, push a pin or long entomological pin through the body and pressed into the bottom of the box to hold the insect. This is called a mounted specimen. Arrange the pins in orderly fashion. Attach small cardboard cards containing information about the insects, e.g. name, where caught, date of capture. For displays in a school museum remove the lid and cover with glass or cellophane taped to the box to make a permanent mounting. Store soft-bodied larvae and pupae in tubes containing methylated spirit or other special preservatives for insects.
9.24 Make a mounting block guide
A uniformly mounted collection is more attractive and makes it easy to compare specimens. Make a wooden mounting block that looks like three steps. Each step has a hole drilled through its centre. Use the top step to line up all insects at the same height by impaling the insect and pressing the pin through the top hole. The other steps provide uniform levels for labels containing information about the specimens.
9.25 Make a simple insect cage
Make a 15 cm cubical frame from ice-cream bar sticks. Pull a ladies stocking over the frame and close the open end by tying a loose knot. The open end provides access to the cage interior.
9.26 Make an insectarium
Put 3 cm of moist, not wet, soil in an aquarium. Add rocks and a small log. Transplant small plants from the garden. Catch insects and put them in the aquarium. Cover the aquarium with wire or plastic mesh. Use only 3 or 4 beetles. Remove any leftover food after 3 days then add fresh food. Sprinkle the soil with water when it becomes dry. Give lettuce or cabbage leaves to grasshoppers. Give pieces of apple, plums, and bananas to bugs and flies Give bread or fruit to ants and cockroaches. Give grain to beetles.
9.27 Keep a diary of insect behaviour
Note when are the insects are more active, when and how they feed, how they get on with each another, when they sleep or rest at night or during the day.
9.28 Collect night insects
Study night flying insects by setting up a light trap. It is a white sheet stretched out between small trees at an angle of 30o from the vertical. Put a bright light source under the sheet.
9.29 Insect collector
See diagram 9.29: Insect-collector or "ant-sucker"
Make an insect collector. Use a 30 cm length of plastic or glass tubing, 3 cm in diameter, a small piece of fine wire mesh, and a length of flexible tubing. Cut a circular piece of wire mesh slightly larger than the inside diameter of the glass or plastic tubing. Force the screen half way through the tubing by pushing it with a rod.
9.30 Simple animal traps
You may need permission to keep animals in the school. Also you may have to report periodically on what animals you keep and why they are necessary for your teaching programme.
Catch small mammals and reptiles for study (not snakes). Use a large glass container with a wide mouth and a screw-on cap. Make a one way door by cutting an opening in the lid and attaching a free swinging metal door that opens inward only. The door swings on a stiff wire. Transfer animals to cages without direct handling. Be careful! Wear heavy leather gloves when handling reptiles or mammals. Even when non-poisonous, bites from such animals may become infected.
9.31 Cages
Keep animals in cages in the science room for short periods of observation. Make a cage from a wooden box with a hinged lid that has a window covered with wire netting. Cut windows in three sides of the box. Cover the side and back windows with wire netting, and a fit a glass plate in the front window. Add a drawer fitted under the front glass window and covering the entire bottom of the cage to allow cleaning the cage without disturbing the animals.
9.32 Food and water
Keep food and water containers above the floor of the cage. Make a feeding trough for small animals by cutting a section from the side of a tin can, bending over the sharp edges, and then attaching it to the side of the cage with wires. Make a watering device for small animals from a bottle fitted with a one-hole rubber stopper through which passes glass tubing. Invert the bottle and insert the tubing through the screen into the cage. Change food and water daily and clean cages once a week.
9.33 Earthworm behaviour, Lumbricus
See diagram 9.33.1
Make a wooden observation box 30 cm X 30 cm X 15 cm fitted with a glass front  to studying the habits of earthworms. Fill the box nearly to the top with successive layers of 1. sand, 2. leaf mould, and 3. loam soil. Pat down each layer before adding the next layer. Put lettuce leaves, dead leaves, and pieces of carrot on the surface of the soil. Loosen the surface of the soil and gently drop on some earthworms. Watch them burrow into the loose soil. Keep the contents of the box damp and study the behaviour of the worms through the glass front of the observation box.
9.34 Ant study
See diagram 9.34.1: Ant observation nest | See diagram 9.34.2: Ant life cycle |  See diagram 9.29: Aspirator bottle, "pooter", "ant-sucker"
Ants (Order Hymenoptera, Family Formicidae)
The life cycle has four stages, egg, larva, pupa, and adult. A winged female is fertilized by a winged male in flight, then finds a protected place or makes a chamber. She then bites off her wings and starts to lay eggs. Fertilized eggs become diploid females and unfertilized eggs become haploid males. The eggs hatch into worm-like larvae that have no eyes or legs. They eat food collected by the queen or regurgitated by worker ants. The larvae moult many times as they get bigger. At full size the larvae spin a cocoon around themselves and become a pupa that will change into the adult form of ant by metamorphosis. The female worker ants forage for food and take it to the queen or to storage. The males soon die but the queen and workers can live for many years. The queen controls the activities of all the workers or soldiers in the ant nest.
Make an ant observation nest with glass sides and a lid. Cut an entry hole near the top of one side and plug it with cotton wool. Collect 100 ants with an insect-collector (ant-sucker) and put them in a bottle. Fill the observation nest with soil from where the ants were collected to the level of the plugged hole. To find the queen, dig up the earth and put it on a white sheet. Break up the earth with the fingers and look for one ant much larger than the others, the queen. Guide the queen to a second bottle. To get the ants into the observation nest, fill a large flat tray with water and put an upturned dinner plate in the middle to form an island. Put the observation nest on the upturned plate and release the ants from the bottle. When the queen is inside the nest, the other ants will follow her through the entry hole. Plug the hole then remove the nest to its permanent place. Put honey inside the entry hole to provide food, and keep the soil moist. Study the activities inside the nest. Observe the laying of eggs, the larvae, and how ants communicate by rapping each other on the head with their antennas. Artificial light does not disturb the ants. Observe the activity inside the tunnels parallel to the glass. Experiment by the removal and subsequent return of a few ants, and the introduction of foreign ants. When the nest is settled and the queen starts laying eggs, remove the cotton wool plug from the hole. Put the observation nest near an open window and the ants will come and go freely.
9.34.1 Flying ants and termites
Both ants (Order Hymenoptera, Family Formicidae) and termites (Order Isoptera, white ants) can swarm during spring and summer. Swarming is a natural occurrence that enables the colonies to reproduce and create additional nests. Flying termites (alates) noticed outdoors should not normally be reason for alarm, however more than a few swarming termites indoors may be a far more serious problem. If you notice more than 20 termite alates indoors, i.e. they have not flown in from outdoors, contact a pest controller without delay. Try to capture and live specimens in a dry jar. Do not add water or any preservative. Both flying termites and flying ants have two pairs of wings and their colour is dark grey to black.
Termites:
1. Have antennae that are almost straight and have a beaded appearance.
2. Wings are virtually twice as long as their body
3. Both wing pairs are the same size.
4. Wing veins are not visible to the naked eye.
5. Have no taper to their body
6. Wings break off easily, with just a touch
Ants:
1. Have antennae that are elbowed (bent)
2. Wings differ in size. The outer pair is larger than the second pair.
3. Have narrow tapered waists
4. Wing veins are usually easily seen with the naked eye
5. Have sturdy wings that do not break off easily.
9.35 Cultures of fruit flies
See diagram 9.35.1: Male and female Drosophila, graph of population study
The common fruit fly, Drosophila, is used in genetic studies. It is easy to culture and reproduces rapidly, so it is suitable for population studies. Put ripe fruit, e.g. a banana, in the bottom of a jar and fit a paper funnel with a hole in the end in the mouth of the jar. Put the jar in the open. When fruit flies have entered the jar, remove the funnel and plug it loosely with cotton wool. The fruit flies should be both males and females. The females are larger, with a broader abdomen. The males are smaller and have a black-tipped abdomen. The females will soon lay eggs and larvae will hatch after two days. Put a piece of newspaper in the jar for the larvae to crawl on when they are ready to pupate and change to adult insects. Put newly-hatched flies in another jar to start a new generation. Make daily counts of the population in the bottle. When numbers become very large, stand a piece of graph paper in the jar to count the number of pupae on the grid. Maintain the bottle as long as the fruit flies survive. Investigate the relationship between density of fly population, food preferences, temperature, life span and population.
9.36 Flatworms,  Dugesia, Planaria
See diagram 9.36.1: Flatworms can regenerate parts
Flatworms react to different stimuli and can regenerate lost parts. Look for flatworms on the underside of submerged logs or stones in a pond or lake. Trap them by placing a piece of raw beef liver in cloth, tying it with a string and placing it in the water. Check the bait daily, and brush off any flatworms into a small jar of the water where they were living. In the classroom, use a medicine dropper to transfer them  into a flat enamelled pan. Keep the pan covered with a piece of brown cardboard when not observing them. Once a week feed the flatworms with finely chopped liver, or hard-boiled egg, or bits of worms. Remove uneaten food with a medicine dropper after three hours.
Note how flatworms respond to various stimuli, e.g. light, sound, food, mild electric shocks and Epsom salts. Use a magnifying glass to observe the tube-like pharynx with which the flatworm uses to ingest its food.
A flatworms can regenerate parts if you put it on a glass microscope slide and cut it with a sharp razor blade. Cut it in half across the body or down the length of the body. A cut part-way down the midline of the body can produce a worm with two heads or two tails. After cutting the flatworm, return the parts to the dish and do not feed until regeneration has occurred.
9.1.2 Insect collection
1. Insect collecting net, air net
See diagram 9.22.1
To make an insect air net use a broom stick, heavy wire and mosquito netting. Bend a heavy piece of wire into a circle 45 cm in diameter, and twist the ends together to form a straight section 15 cm in length. Fasten this to the end of a broom handle with a wire. Cut a piece of mosquito netting to form a net 75 cm deep and fasten to the circular wire frame with stitches.
2. Insect collecting net, sweep net
Make a sweep net with muslin and very heavy wire that will not bend when the net is swept through grass. Sweep by working back and forth over a measured area. Count the net contents to estimate the number of insects between the soil surface and the grass tops. To find the relative numbers of insects, sample the school grounds, a farm field, an abandoned field, forest floor or other natural areas. Before the sweeping of vegetation, make small cages for crickets or grasshoppers with metal insect netting. Put grass, water and a small dish of moist sand in each cage. Females may lay eggs in the sand.
9. Insect killing container
Obtain a wide mouth glass container with a screw top or one that closes very tightly. Put a wad of cotton in the bottom and cover it with a round piece of cardboard or absorbent paper that has several holes punched through it. When the container is used, saturate the cotton with an insecticide. Put the piece of cardboard over the cotton and then put the insect in the container. Close the container tightly and leave until the insect is dead. If moths or butterflies are being prepared, ensure that the container opening is large enough to avoid tearing the wings.
4. Mounting boxes for insect collections
Use wood boxes for keeping insect collections. After removing the insect from the stretching board, push a pin or long entomological pins through the body and pressed into the bottom of the box to hold the insect. This is called a mounted specimen. Arrange the pins in orderly fashion. Attach small cardboard cards containing information about the insects, e.g. name, where caught, date of capture. For displays in a school museum remove the lid and covered with glass or cellophane taped to the box to make a permanent mounting. Store soft bodied larvae and pupae in tubes containing methylated spirit or other special preservatives for insects.
9.1.7 Honeybee body structure, Apis mellifera
See diagram 9.7.1 Make a paper frame to study honeybees
SAFETY
The bee's ‘sting’ consisting  of a barb and attached venom sac located on posterior. A wasp may sting repeatedly. The sting causes  local pain with swelling later and perhaps an allergic reaction. Remove a bee sting by sliding it out with a fingernail. Then  wipe the sting area clean and apply ice. Seek urgent medical  attention, especially if  sting is around face or  neck. A wasp may sting repeatedly. Apply ice and seek medical attention.]
1. Examine the hairs on the legs
Cut a piece of paper the size of a coverslip from a sheet of writing paper and fold to form a two layered triangle. Cut from this triangle the area so that only a strip 2 mm wide remains. Unfold to give a small paper frame. Holding it with forceps, preferably at one corner, put a very thin layer of all purpose glue on both sides and attach it to a slide. Examine a bee. It can be seen with the naked eye, and even better with a magnifying glass, that the body of the bee is almost completely covered with hairs. Pluck a clump of hairs from a well covered site with forceps. Put it inside the fixed paper frame on the slide and press a coverslip over the upper side of the frame which is already coated with glue. The hairs are now firmly enclosed between the slide and the coverslip. Such a specimen keeps for a long time and is called a permanent preparation. Permanent preparations can also be prepared with other specimens by this method. However they must be absolutely dry as, for example, the scales of butterfly wings. If the specimens are moist, they go mouldy in the enclosed space between the slide and the coverslip. Inspect the preparation with a microscope, magnification 50 X. the hairs. When collecting pollen, bees often roll over in the flowers, thus covering their whole body with pollen. The hairs are adapted to the activity of pollen gathering.
2. Examine the antennas
Count the number of parts making up a single antenna and note their relative arrangement. Examine the antennas with a magnifying glass. The segment attached to the head is called the scape. A flagellum consisting of individual joints projects from one corner. Count the joints in the female worker and the drones. Between the shaft and flagellum is a small, ring shaped connecting piece called a turning joint. Transfer a drop of glycerine to the middle of a slide with a glass rod to examine the dark coloured sections of a bee. Use forceps to remove both antennas from a bee at the point where they are attached to the head. Put them in the drop of glycerine on the slide and place a coverslip on top. Avoid trapping air bubbles by holding the sides of the coverslip with thumb and index finger and mount it at an angle. Then draw it into the glycerine drop and let it settle gently into place without applying pressure. First examine the preparation under a microscope, magnification 50 X. The structure of the antennas can be seen more clearly than with a magnifying glass. Round pores are visible on their surface. Where and how are they distributed? How large are they? The pores can be seen in more detail using a higher powered objective, 40 X. The large pores are the openings of the olfactory pits, and very fine probing setae emerge from the smaller ones. Prepare a drawing showing the component parts of a bee antennas. What purpose do the antennas of the bee serve?
3. Examine the wings
The three main sections of the body of a bee are head, thorax and abdomen. The wings are attached to the middle section, the thorax. There are two pairs of wings, one pair each of fore wings and hind wings. Discover how the wings of the bee are constructed. Choose a bee which has all its wings present, undamaged and not twisted. Hold the bee between the thumb and index finger of the left hand so that its back faces upwards and its head points forward. Using forceps, grasp the outermost tip of the right fore wing and bend it backwards over the surface of the hind wing. Then draw it slowly forward again. The trailing edge of the fore wing should graze over the surface of the hind wing. What can you see? Repeat the process again, if necessary several times until something attracts your attention. Next, examine the wings with a magnifying glass. Are they all the same size? How are they constructed? Using pointed scissors cut off both wings on one side as close as possible to the body. Transfer a drop of glycerine to a slide using a glass rod and introduce the wings into it and place a coverslip over them. Examine the preparation under a microscope, magnification 50 X. What can you see on the wings? How are they constructed? Very examine the middle part of the front edge of the hind wing. What do you find there? There is a brown strip in this middle section. It is wider than the "veins" of the wing, runs close to the edge and stands out clearly. At this point the skin of the front wing wraps over, making a fold. Together with the little hook, hamuli, on the hind wing it forms the coupling apparatus which is essential for flight. What is the function of the coupling apparatus of the bee? Remember what happens when the front wing is drawn forwards over the surface of the rear wing.
4. Examine the legs
The bee has three pairs of legs. Like the wings, they are attached to the middle section of the body, the thorax. Examine the legs of the bee to discover how they are constructed. With the lancet form dissecting needle tease off all the legs of the bee flush with the body. Be sure that the legs are completely detached and that nothing remains hanging from the body. First examine them under a magnifying glass. It can be clearly seen that each leg consists of several different sections. The uppermost portion attached directly to the body is the coxa. Then follows the trochanter, the femur, the tibia and the tarsus, which consists of five tarsomeres or tarsal joints. The first, uppermost, tarsal joint is much larger than the other four. The claws are attached to the last, lowest, tarsomere. How many claws are there? See whether all the legs of the bee are constructed in this way. What is the hair pattern? The hind legs of the bee are collecting legs. Examine them closely to see why they are called this. On the inner side of the first tarsal joint are transverse rows of stiff hairs like bristles. They can be clearly seen with the magnifying glass. They form the pollen brushes with which the bee brushes off the flower dust, or pollen, from its body. Count the rows of bristles. On the outer surface of the tibia there is a smooth hairless area which is slightly concave. This depression is called the corbicula, or pollen basket. It is used for storing pollen. Hairs surround the edge of the basket. What is their shape? And how are they arranged? In what direction do they point? What do they do? Using a glass rod place a drop of glycerine in the middle of a microscope slide, place a collecting leg in the glycerine and place a coverslip over it. Examine the specimen under the microscope, magnification 50 X. The enlarged image shows the pollen press situated at the junction of the first tarsal joint and the tibia. The pollen press packs the pollen into small clumps which are then deposited in the corbicula. This is how bees "breeches" are formed. What does the pollen press look like? Prepare a foreleg from a bee in the same way, and also examine it at magnification 50 X. The fore legs are the cleaning legs of the bee. At the upper end of the first tarsomere is a semicircular depression, or notch, fitted with fine setae like a comb. This is called an antenna cleaner. At the lower end of the tibia there is a lateral jointed spur, the fibula. When the bee bends the first tarsomere towards the tibia, the fibula closes the cleaning notch. The bee then draws its antennas through the comb to remove any adhering pollen grains. Which legs of the bee are used for cleaning and which for collecting? Where are the brushes and the corbicula found on the collecting legs? Why does the bee clean its antennas with the antennas cleaner?
5. Examine the sting apparatus
Only female bees, both workers and queens, possess a sting apparatus, which is situated in the end segment of the abdomen. It is used as a weapon. Examine the structure of the sting apparatus of the bee. Transfer a drop of water from a beaker to a slide with a glass rod. Put a bee on its back on a ground glass screen and hold it firmly at the front end of the abdomen with either forceps or your fingers. Place a pointed dissecting needle on the centre of the abdomen and stroke it backwards, pressing gently. The sting will be pressed out of the abdomen, usually with the first stroke. Take hold of it with the pointed forceps, draw it out from the abdomen together with all the adhering organs and place the whole in the drop of water of the slide. Mount a coverslip over it and examine the specimen under a microscope, magnification 50 X. The sting is clearly visible. What shape is it? And what colour? If it has been arranged in a useful position barbs can be seen at the tip of the sting on both sides. In which direction do the tips of these barbs point? And why? At the upper end of the sting is a swollen sac-like structure from the other end of which hangs a long thin thread. If removed undamaged from the abdomen this thread will be seen to be divided into two short branches. These two threads are the venom, or "acid", glands. The venom released from them then passes, for storage, into the swelling which is called the venom sac. On either side of the sting lie various plates and muscles which are used when the bee injects the sting into the body of its victim. All these parts collectively form the sting apparatus of the bee. the constituent parts of the sting apparatus? What is their relative arrangement?
9.20 Flatworm behaviour, Dugesia, Planaria
Flatworms react to various stimuli so they are suitable for simple studies of behaviour. They also possess an ability to regenerate lost parts.
1. Finding and feeding flatworms
Look for flatworms on the underside of submerged logs or stones in a pond or lake. The best species for study are the brown Dugesia or the larger Planaria. Trap them by wrapping a raw liver in cloth, tying with string and putting it in a pond. In the classroom, transfer the flatworms with a large medicine dropper into a bowl. Keep the containers covered with a lid when not observing. Feed finely chopped liver, hard-boiled egg, or bits of worm once a week. After 3 hours remove excess food with a medicine dropper.
2. Flatworm behaviour
Observe how flatworms respond to light, sound, food sources, mild electric shocks and chemicals, e.g. Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate crystals). Use a magnifying glass enables to see the tube-like pharynx with which the flatworm ingests its food.
9. Flatworms regenerate parts
Flatworms can regrow parts if you put a specimen on a glass slide and cut it with a sharp razor blade. Cut worms in half across the body or down the length of the body. A cut part way down the mid line of the body produces a worm with two heads. After cutting, return the parts to the dish and do not feed until regeneration has occurred.