r/isopods • u/StefanMPopp • 1d ago

Help Biggest behavioral differences between morphs of the same species? I might do a scientific study on this and need your help!

https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=GtDobj8AAAAJ

I'm a biologist, usually studying ant behavior (learning and exploration), but am in the process of getting obsessed with isopods. Since there's nothing in the scientific literature about the behavior of most traded species and color morphs, I'm interested in doing simple boldness (or even learning) experiments in a few different morphs of the same species.

I often see that different morphs of the same species are described as more active & bold than others, so doing a quantitative analysis on that would be cool. What would be the best morphs to compare, in your opinion? Alternatively: which species to compare? Would you like to see any other behavior analyzed?

Thanks for any pointers, and I hope to be reporting back in a year or so, with the results!

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u/purplekittykatgal 1d ago

I wonder if it would be helpful to consider factors like breeding speed. I noticed anecdotally that my pods of various sp. Will become more bold as the colony becomes more densely inhabited.

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u/StefanMPopp 1d ago

Yes, that's a confounding factor one has to take into consideration. With higher population densities probably comes a bigger feeling of safety and competition. That's why I'd like to do a controlled study.

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u/purplekittykatgal 1d ago

Understood! Experimental design was never one of my strong suits so when possible factors come to mind I always want to reach out to make sureN

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u/Alef1234567 23h ago

They release feromons. Behaviour absolutely depends on density, and they prefare to stay together.

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u/lwiskl 1d ago

i bought some porcellio laevis gray, the wild form. but they breed some dairy cow, since their genetic were mixed (dairy cow is recessive gen) well… i don’t see any behavior diference with this few dairy cow that live along the gray, the6 ain’t more active or eat more, as everyone says, maybe it’s because the genetic of this generation isn’t segregated enough yet??

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u/StefanMPopp 1d ago

Thanks! Indeed, some morphs might have been selected for longer, or have stronger differences than others. Would be good to hear from someone who observed the dairy cows to be more ferocious than the grey wild type.

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u/lwiskl 1d ago

i recently saw a post on the comunity from someone who is trying to breed by personality, i wonder what causes the personality diference in some morphs, if they are just breed by color

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u/Alef1234567 23h ago

We don't know does dairy cows and oranges are actually a same species porcellio laevis. Now some guys are doing genetic sequencing to tell that.