Cricket Behavior

Crickets Observation

Materials:

• Plastic container with a cover punctured with holes 
• Small paper cup
• Sand
• Dry dog food
• Carrots
• Water
• 8 Crickets

The Crickets were placed in the plastic container with damp sand, carrots on one side and dry dog food on the other side. The small paper cup was placed in the center of the container and was used to make a house for the crickets. I observe the crickets for a week in my living room. My living room is very warm and ranges from 70-80 C. I spend most of my time in the living room so I was able to observe the crickets frequently. I observe them the most around 5am, 11am, 4pm and 10pm. During these times, I notice the crickets interacting with each other, eating, chirping, resting, hiding, grooming, jumping, walking and scratching at the container. The crickets would typically jump every time I approach them unexpectedly, they would scratch at the container, every time I was doing an activity close by them, they would chirp mostly at night or when the room was fairly dark. I also notice two unusual activity, when I was walking home with the crickets in the cold, they all stop moving and appeared dead at first. And when one of the smallest crickets died the 5th day, I notice that there were 2 holes dug, even though I didn’t see this act of digging, the cricket that had died was inside one of the holes and when I came back a few hours later, the hole with the dead cricket was cover as if they buried it. 

Ethogram:

Questions

1. Why did the crickets appear dead in the cold?
2. Why did the crickets dig holes?

Hypothesis

1. The crickets appear dead in the cold to maintained body temperature
2. The crickets dig holes to bury thing or stay safe 

Predictions

1. If the crickets appear dead, then they must be cold 
2. If the crickets dig holes, then they are burying something