Turn Up the Heat: Temperature and its effects on activity levels on Zophobas morio

Abstract

The purpose of this lab is to develop a more complete understanding of how temperature affects the activity levels of ectotherms in general. We did this by measuring the activity levels of super worms, Zophobas morio of various temperatures, which was done by counting the amount of squares the worms traveled on our mat for 7 minutes. We discovered that there is an overall upward trend with activity level and temperature but that the trend is not directly proportional. This helps us better understand how ectotherms react to changes in temperature and how they might respond to events such as climate change.