The Impact of Light on Flour Beetle’s Ability to Flip from their Backs to their StomachsINTRODUCTIONTribolium castaneum, the flour beetle, is a common pest in households and warehouse that contain products such as wheat, grain, cereal, and oats. The word ‘pest’ can be used loosely in the case of the flour beetle. While they are an issue in the agricultural industry, they are harmless in households because they do not cause any harm to human beings. They merely eat what you just spent your earnings on at the grocery store. It is important that we study flour beetles so that we can make improvements in pest management programs (Cambell, Nechols, Romero, & With, 2010). There are many factors that affect the behavior of flour beetles, such as perceptual resolution, movement ability, resource quality and distribution, and internal and external stimuli (Cambell, Nechols, Romero, & With, 2010). In observing the flour beetles we noticed that behavior was highly affected when flipped over onto their backs. Based on our knowledge that many people keep their pantries in dark places, we decided to test if lighting had an effect on whether beetles could flip back onto their stomach when placed in the dark.We hypothesized that if beetles are located in a darker setting, then it will take them longer to flip from their backs to their stomachs. Our null hypothesis was that darker settings have no effect on how long it takes beetles to flip from their backs to their stomachs. We predict that the lighting will have an effect on the beetle’s visual perception and, therefore, enabling them turn over in the same amount of time as it would if they were in a lit environment.METHODSWe used a total of 20 flour beetles, 10 of which were placed in clear petri dishes and 10 of whichwere placed in the black petri dishes. The beetles in the clear petri dishes acted as the control group and the beetles in the black petri dishes acted as the manipulated group. We flipped all of the beetles onto their backs and set a timer for four minutes. After the time was up, we recorded how many beetles had flipped from their backs to their stomachs. To accept our hypothesis, a significantly higher number of beetles in the clear petri would have flipped over as opposed to the black petri dishes after the four minutes was up.RESULTSAfter the four minutes expired, only one beetle in the lit petri dishes had flipped over and none of the beetles in the black petri dishes had flipped over (Figure 1).DISCUSSIONOur experiment resulted in a p-value of 0.343 when comparing the number of flipped beetles in the clear and black petri dishes. Because the p-value was greater than 0.05, we failed to reject the null hypothesis.We did not find a correlation in beetle behavior and dark environments. Whether you leave the light on in the pantry or turn it off, flour beetles are still likely to gain enough movement ability to get to your food. If we could re-do the experiment, we have many more replicates and allow for much more time for the beetles to flip. Also, because we didn’t get much of a response we could possibly provide some sort of prop such as a substrate.Figure 1Replicates Light Black1 no no2 no no3 no no4 no no5 no no6 no no7 no no8 no no9 yes no10 no noFigure 2Light Black00.020.040.060.080.10.12Average number of four beetles fippedFigure 2 compares the average number of beetles flipped in light and dark petri dishes.REFERENCESCampbell, J. F., Nechols, J. R., Romero, S. A., & With, K. A. (2010). Movement behavior of red flourbeetle: Response to habitat cues and patch boundaries. Environmental Entomology, 39(3),