YEAR 9 EDGE SCIENCE (BIOLOGY) By Clare WilsonWith Grace Yap, Denae Moore and Ben SharpeINTRODUCTIONIn this experiment we will test our Red Rust flour beetles to find out when they become most active. We will place the insects in two areas, one hot and one cold. After running the test a few times we will be able to piece together our results to find an answer. Knowing that insects prefer a certain area or temperature we will be able to discover the natural habitats and nature of the insect. BACKGROUND The common name for these beetles is the red rust flour beetle but if you want the scientific name you will find it, Tribolium Castaneum. It belongs to the Tenebrionidae family. The adult size of the beetle is approximately three or four millimeters and has an elongated body of a more or less parallel shape. Red-brown or dark brown in colour, this beetle can be recognized by the antennae that are inserted under the sides of the head. The insect also forms a club-shaped elytra of 3 segments with finely perforated lines. These insects are distributed in the tropics and subtropics. Red rust meal beetles like to be between 22 and 40°C but I prefer 35°C. Female cockroaches will lay up to 500 eggs. The life cycle of a beetle is 20 days under optimal temperature and environmental conditions. The larvae and adults are secondary parasites and attack cereals, peanuts, spices, cocoa, dried fruit and nuts. Commodity infestation discolors the grain and emits a foul odor. This insect does not appear in standing crops. Therefore, good hygiene with storage and control equipment should minimize infection. PURPOSE: To find out whether Red Rust flour beetles react and become more active in warmer or colder areas. HYPOTHESIS: The Red Rust Fl...... middle of paper ...... insects live in tropical/subtropical areas so we can know right away that they will become more active in warmer areas. In both tests the results show very different things. I think the second test was much more successful than the first. The main factor that would have influenced the results overall would have been the different temperature between the two tests. This, combined with the fact that they were on a different day and the fact that we didn't have the exact same amount of bugs in the containers, would have been the biggest factors that would have disfavored our test. CONCLUSIONS I was able to try and find out my answer, which was my hypothesis; bed bugs will become more active under the lamp or in warmer areas. While these beetles may cause a couple of problems with grains in discoloration and odor, they are otherwise not harmful or called pests.