Lupine Seed Crypsis

Melissa VielmaAllison Bogisich

Susan LeJesus Gallegos

What is Crypsis?The ability of an organism to avoid detection

or observation by another organism or predator

Gives helpless, defenseless organisms protection

Ex: Hermit CrabsWalking SticksChameleons

Lupine Seed Variation Different colored seeds

Light-white Dark almost black

Different sizes Large Small

Making the Bread seeds To make the small bread seeds we used ¼ of a

slice of bread and dipped them into water. We rolled the bread into balls.

To make large bread seeds we used ½ of a slice of bread and repeated the process of dipping them into water and rolling them into balls.

To color the bread seeds black we mixed water with black food coloring. Then we dipped them in the mixture and spread it throughout the seed until it was completely covered.

Procedure We drove to Strawberry creek

and scattered the bread seeds where we thought rodents would not be able to find them, memorizing where we hid each of our seeds. We waited 20 minutes before coming back to the creek and collected the bread seeds that were still hidden.

Recording DataRESULTS: LARGE BLACK SEEDS- 10 found out of 10 =100% SMALL BLACK SEEDS- 8 found out of 10 =80% LARGE WHITE SEEDS- 10 found out of 10 =100% SMALL WHITE SEEDS- 5 found out of 10 =50%

LARGE SMALL

WHITE 10 5BLACK 10 8

Conclusion

large black seeds

small black seeds

large white seeds

small white seeds

02468

1012

large black seedssmall black seedslarge white seedssmall white seeds

We can conclude from this information that small white seeds were the easiest to find and large seeds were the hardest to find.

Amount of seeds not Found

Results: Average Weight of Seeds

Ave. weight of dark seeds found

Ave weight of Dark Seeds Not Found

Ave. Weight of Ligh Seeds Found

Ave Weight of Light Seeds not found

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

Trials 1 to 3Trials 4 to 6Trials 7 to 9

Grm

as

Results: Percent of Seeds Found

Trials 1 to 3 Trials 4 to 6 Trials 7 to 90.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

% Light Seeds Found% Dark Seeds found

Results: Weight/Seed

Trials 1-3 Trials 4-6 Trials 7-90

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16 Figure 3

Total Weight/Seeds of All Seeds Found Total Weight/Seed of ALL Seeds NOT Found

Trials for Lupine Seed Experiment

Wei

ght

of S

eeds

in G

ram

s

Our Hypothesis That lighter, smaller seeds

would be the best qualities for lupine seeds to have in order to aid them in crypsis.

How will this affect lupines in the future, or the future of the rodents that eat the seeds?

The majority of lupines will develop smaller, lighter seeds because they blend in well with the sand. However, since sand is multi-colored, darker seeds will still occur, but will not be a dominant color.

For rodents, this means that they must develop keener senses to help them find the seeds.