1. The Big Question
Which habitat in Jude’s garden does the carabid beetle prefer?
Do they Prefer: Compost Heap,
Wood Heap Or Compost Bin?
What is the population of the Carabid Beetle in Jude’s
Garden?
Do Weather Conditions affect sightings?Which type of habitat
do they prefer?

2. Why We Chose This
Question
Jude: I chose my question because I
wanted to get more skinks in our forest
and I LOVE Beetles!!!!!!!
Kyle: I chose this question because
I want to find out more facts on
beetles.

3. Areas Searched
The Wood Pile
Lots of wood and leaves underneath the wood.
Compost Bin
Lots of food scraps and leaves and EARWIGS!!!!
Compost Heap
Lots of Grass and thorns and some branches.

4. Notes
We Will use Nail polish to We changed our
mark the beetles,as the time spent
We saw that the beetles t wink doesn’t stay on. searching ,from
are moving bet ween the
15 min to 10 min
wood pile and the
and for our last
compost bin through the
search 20 min.
ventilation shafts in the
compost bin. We moved the dark side of
the choice-chamber over so It was wet for
some tests.
we could be sure that it
wasn’t just the type of
compost they liked.
We found out that we We found 6 beetles in
should have been the compost heap.
looking in the top of
We found 9 beetles in
the compost bin, not the wood pile.
the bottom! We found 12 beetles in
the compost bin.

5. Hypothesis- What We
Think
I think that the Carabid Beetles will prefer under the bricks near the
compost heap because we used to find them there.
My Population estimate is about 25 Beetles total. Jude
I think that the Carabid Beetles will prefer the compost bin because
it’s dry.
My Population estimate is about 30 Beetles total. Kyle

6. Background Info Carabid
Beetles
The Facts
Turn over a rock or log, and you'll see dark, shiny beetles running for cover – ground beetles. This diverse group of predators makes the top 10 list
of beneficial garden insects. Though hidden by day, at night the Carabids hunt and feed on some of our worst garden pests.Description:The best
way to get to know the ground beetles is to observe some up close. Since most are nocturnal, you can usually find them hiding under boards or
stepping stones during the day. T using a pitfall trap to collect a few, and check for the telltale Carabid characteristics.
ry
Most ground beetles are black and shiny, though some display metallic colors. In many Carabids, the elytra are grooved. Look at a ground beetle's
hind legs, and you'll notice the first leg segments (the hips) extend backwards over the first abdominal segment.
Classification:
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Arthropoda

7. Extra Info
Food Choice
We found out from a
website that 73.5% of
all carabids were
carnivores, 8.1% were
herbivores and 19.5%
were omnivores. We
are going to use this
information to
introduce the carabids
to our school forest to
encourage skinks.

8. Materials
Twink/Nail Polish: T Mark the Beetles
o
An Ice-Cream Container: T store the
o
Beetles
2 Digging Tools: T Dig For the Beetles
o
Cardboard, sellotape and a plastic box for
the choice chamber.
Enough time to look!

9. T Method
est
Step 1: Look in 1 of selected 3 places for 10 Minutes.
Step 2: Mark Beetles with Twink.
Step 3:Release Beetles in place found, then look in the other 2 places
repeating the process above.
Step 4:Record results.
Step 5:Next week repeat process and mark if a beetle has Twink on its back.
We caught the carabid beetles and marked them with twink so if we found them
again we would know we had caught them before.
Place cardboard in 4 sections
fill sections with compost (1 and 2 are dry and 2 and 3 are dark)
Do dark side with cardboard
capture beetles for choicechamber

10. Search 1 Record-Result Search 2
Compost Compost Wood Compost Compost
Type Type Wood Pile
Bin Heap Pile Bin Heap
Date: 20/7/12 20/7/12 20/7/12 Date: 21/7/12 21/7/12 21/7/12
3:35 PM 4:45 Time: 12:50 PM 12:02 PM 12:30 PM
Time: 4:15 PM
PM Temp: 14.3 12.6 13.3
Temp: Unknown 16.6 14
Found: 2 1 1
Found: 2 4 2
Search 3 Search 4
Compost Compost Wood Compost Compost
Type Type Wood Pile
Bin Heap Pile Bin Heap
Date: 4/8/12 4/8/12 4/8/12 Date: 5/8/12 5/8/12 5/8/12
Time: 1:45 PM 1:35 PM 2:00 PM Time: 10:20 AM 10:10 AM 10:30 AM
Temp: 14.1 13.2 13.9 Temp: 10.2 9.2 10.2
Found: 1 0 1 Found: 0 0 0

11. Search 5
Record 2 Search 6
Compost Compost Wood Compost Compost Wood
Type Type
Bin Heap Pile Bin Heap Pile
Date: 8/8/12 8/8/12 8/8/12 Date: 16/8/12 16/8/12 16/8/12
Time: 4:15 4:05 4:25 Time: 4:20 4:10 4:30
Temp: 7.6 7.6 7.6 Temp: 10.4 10.4 10.4
Found: 0 0 1 Found: 2(1 R)4c 1R 4
Search 7
Search 8
Compost Compost Wood Compost Compost Wood
Type Type
Bin Heap Pile Bin Heap Pile
Date: 18/8/12 18/8/12 18/8/12 Date: 23/8/12 23/8/12 23/8/12
Time: 3:20 3:40 3:30 Time: 4:00 4:10 3:50
Temp: 12.4 12.4 12.4 Temp:
Found: 1 0 0 Found: 1 0 0

12. Choice-Chamber
1st test 3rd test
Results Dry light: 0
Wet light:12
Dry light:0
Wet light:5
Dry Dark:0
Dry Dark: 3
Wet Dark:3
Wet Dark: 4
Escapees:13
=19/23?
Missing
beetle:3
2 escapees! 2 Beetles missing
4th test
2nd test Dry light:4
Dry light: 6 Wet light:8
Wet light:7 Dry Dark:1
In our Choice-chamber Dry Dark:5 Wet Dark:8
Missing beetle:1
we had:wet light,dry Wet Dark:4
All beetles found!
light,dry dark and wet
dark. We found out that the carabid
beetles prefer wet conditions.

13. Was my prediction right?
Jude: My prediction about where they prefer
was incorrect, and my population prediction was
wrong by 15 beetles.
Kyle: My prediction about where they live, was
incorrect.I was also wrong about how much
there were.I was off by 10.

14. Population Count 24 beetles(13 were marked)
I copied this from this website: http://www.radford.edu/jkell/mark_rec103.pdf
The Mark and Recapture Technique
By far the most popular way to measure the size of a population is called the Mark and Recapture
Technique. This technique is commonly used by fish and wildlife managers to estimate population sizes before
fishing or hunting seasons. The mark and recapture method involves marking a number of individuals in a
natural population, returning them to that population, and subsequently recapturing some of them as a basis for
estimating the size of the population at the time of marking and release. This procedure was first used by C.J.G.
Petersen in studies of marine fishes and F.C. Lincoln in studies of waterfowl populations, and is often referred
to as the Lincoln Index or the Petersen Index. It is based on the principle that if a proportion of the population
was marked in some way, returned to the original population and then, after complete mixing, a second sample
was taken, the proportion of marked individuals in the second sample would be the same as was marked
initially in the total population. That is,
R (marked recaptures) M (marked initially)
——————————— = ————————————
T (total in second sample) N (total pop. size)
By rearrangement we can estimate the population size, N, to be,
M*T
N = ———
R
For example, suppose you took 200 mice out of a forest having an unknown number of mice, put leg bands on
them, return them to the forest and let them mix thoroughly. If you then take 250 mice from the forest and find
50 of them to be have leg bands, then M = 200, T = 250, R = 50, and the unknown total number of mice (N)
could be estimated as:
N = M*T/R = (200)(250)/50 = 1000 mice
22x24/13=40 beetles total!

15. Conclusion
The Carabid Beetles Prefer the Compost
Bin,because it is dryer in there.
Population:40
The Carabids like dry conditions when its
not raining and they aren’t bothered about
light or dark.Temp does affect how many
we see because they don’t like the cold.

16. Future Action
In the Future We will:
We are going to use our information on where the carabids prefer to
live to introduce them to our forest because they are part of a food
chain connected with native birds and skinks because,in our school
forest, there are not enough insects to attract skinks.We know this
because we have done school tests to see how many insects there
were and the numbers were VERY low,especially compared to the
large amounts in Jude’s garden.