Biology 03050, Invertebrate Zoology
Handout for Laboratory 2: INTRODUCTION TO ECOLOGY AND ANIMAL DIVERSITY
Lab manual: Hickman et al., 9th ed., Exercises 6 and 16E
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Equipment: lab manual, butterfly nets (one per student), and white bed sheet (one per lab).
Exploration: areas near athletic practice fields and HVCC Nature Trail.
Before spending most of the semester with laboratory-based observations of invertebrate diversity and structure, we will head outside this week to put gain an ecological perspective. Read in your text before or after lab about the major characteristics of a temperature deciduous forest (7th ed., Ch. 5, pp. 128-130). Before going outside, your instructor will spend time describing a taxonomic key and how to use it. When you head out to weedy areas near the Nature Trail, use your net to capture insects and other invertebrates. Resting your net on the white sheet for contrast, use your taxonomic keys (general animal key, Exercise 6, p. 83, and more specialized insect key, Exercise 16E, p. 244) to try to identify your"trophies" before releasing them.
General questions from"capturing and keying":
What kinds of animals are you and your laboratory finding?
What kinds of features (structural, etc.) do your taxonomic keys emphasize?
Are you able to identify your organisms from the taxonomic key?
You will then finish up with a stroll along the HVCC Nature Trail before heading back to lab. Pay attention to major characteristics of this deciduous forest, e.g., major tree types, leaf cover, etc. We will be finishing 03051, Vertebrate Zoology, along the same trail, so you will want to be prepared to compare the woods from fall to spring.
Your instructor may base homework and/or quizzes on questions posed in this handout or in the assigned reading. Furthermore, your instructor may test you on your ability to use a taxonomic key.
ADDITIONAL NOTES AND DRAWINGS:
|main page| |background| |03028: Physiology| |03048: Anatomy|
|03050: Invertebrate Zoology| |03051: Vertebrate Zoology| |03074: Economic Botany|
Please send comments and questions to: cronewil@hvcc.edu
Copyright 1999 by Wilson Crone
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This page updated on September 15, 1999