(Activity) Entomology Science Project - How does Plant Richness Influence Arthropod Richness and Abundance?

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Resource Description:
Observations: Many arthropods (invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, such as insects, spiders, mites, centipedes, etc) use plants for food and shelter. Areas that have a greater number of species of plants, such as natural areas (Fig. 1) and gardens, seem to have more arthropods than areas that have few species of plants, such as agricultural fields (Fig. 2) and grass lawns.

Question: Does the number of plant species in an area influence the number of arthropod species and their abundance?

Hints to form the hypothesis: Herbivorous arthropods may eat one plant species (specialists) or eat a variety of plant species (generalists). Areas that have a diversity of plants may provide more food for specialist and generalist herbivores. Arthropod predators often prey on insect herbivores, so predators may be more abundant where there are many herbivores. Arthropods also find shelter in a variety of plant parts.

Hypothesis: Arthropod richness (the number of species) and abundance (number of individuals of each species) will be higher in diverse plant communities because of the availability of a greater variety of food and shelter.

Materials:  At least three plastic yellow bowls (Yellow is attractive to many types of insects and other arthropods and they are drawn to the bowls)  A one meter long piece of string  An instruction and plant data sheet (Table 1)  At least three plastic containers with lids (use peanut butter jars or other containers from home)  Water, table salt, dish detergent  A hand lens or dissection microscope (Fig. 3 shows a sample packet of materials).
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