Crickets Investigation

Cricket Background Research: Crickets have some type of relation to grasshoppers. They come from the genus Orthoptera, this genus consists of crickets, grasshoppers, and locusts. The cricket consumes anything from meat to plants. At times they even consume each other. They live under rocks and logs in meadows, and they are also nocturnal. They only come out at night to hunt and feed. They are prey to spiders, wasps, beetles, birds, rodents, and lizards. In order for them to mate the male cricket rubs their forewings to attract their mates. While the female crickets lay eggs in the soil. The crickets also play an important factor in the ecosystem. They help breakdown plant material, renewing soil minerals. A negative impact they have on the ecosystem is that they injure seedlings, and male cricket songs can be loud and obnoxious.

Question: Which food choice will the crickets prefer?

Hypothesis: If we give the crickets a choice of apples and celery then they will eat the apples because based on other observations they prefer apples.

Digital Picture:

Crickets in container with celery and apples

Data Table:

Explanation: what I did was at first we placed both options (the celery and apples) into the container. After I put the crickets (two) into the container along with the choices. After, my partner and I recorded what we saw so far between the crickets and their new environment we also came to the conclusion that both crickets liked both options.

Conclusion: When two crickets were placed into the container with both options of celery or apples, at first both crickets were fond of the apple option. But when the other option (the celery) was placed closer to them they began to take a liking to both the celery and apples. The evidence that supports this is that one cricket at first only preferred the apples, but when another cricket was placed with it they both seemed to like both of the options.