WOODLOUSE LOCOMOTOR BEHAVIOR IN THE ASSESSMENT OF CLEAN AND CONTAMINATED FIELD SITES

Specimens of the woodlouse Oniscus asellus were collected at four clea n field sites and from a recently closed iron foundry heavily contamin ated with zinc, lead, chromium, and nickel. Each of the 30 woodlice pe r group was housed individually and acclimatized to laboratory conditi ons for 2 d on a humid plaster of paris substrate. Thereafter, the loc omotor behavior of each animal was measured for 4 h employing automate d computer-aided video tracking. Linear discriminant analysis of five locomotor parameters revealed average velocity and path length as the principle components separating the polluted site and control animals. Post hoc analysis of the discriminant variable for animals from all f ive sites showed that the animals from the polluted site where signifi cantly hyperactive when compared to all controls. Further, control ani mals collected from sites separated by several hundred kilometers were remarkably similar in their locomotor behavior. This preliminary stud y highlights the potential utility of quantitative analysis of animal locomotor behavior in environmental monitoring.