The aim of this experiment was to investigate the relationship between the Porcellio Scaber and the soil moisture they prefer the most. My Hypothesis stated that as the Porcellio scaber got use to its habitat it would prefer the container with the most moisture in it (container 100ml). From the five trials I took, the most preferred container was the one containing 100ml’s of water, although on average there was only a difference of two slaters between the 100ml container, the 75ml container and the 0ml container. This proves my hypothesis correct, that Porcellio scaber prefer the soil with the highest amount of moister.

My results showed that container 0ml, which had no moisture in it at all, had an average of 5 slaters in it. This contradicts my background information as it is stated that the Porcellio scaber prefers damp, moist conditions more then dry conditions. It is also said that Porcellio scaber’s need moist conditions the survive as they breath in moisture. Although my background information may seem wrong, its not. As my experiment was only 10 minutes long it wasn't a sufficient amount of time for the slaters to move around to all the containers. Porcellio scaber’s are also lazy, some may not move at all until a certain amount of time, this could be due to them playing dead as they aren't use to the habitat of the container, some may also burrow down into the soil without actually moving around the container. If my experiment was longer, we would see a change in the results.

My experiment was carried out from 9:58am-11:45am, though out this time the humidity and temperature stayed the same. With the humidity at 61 percent and the temperature at 20 degrees celsius. Since my humidity and temperature didn't change though out the experiment I can safely say that any unusual behaviour though out the experiment wouldn't be caused from the effect of the humidity or temperature level changing. 20 degrees celsius is around room temperature, with the humidity being 61 percent the conditions for the slaters are reasonably normal. From my background research it says that high summer temperatures (up to 23 degrees C) cause the woodlice to retreat deeper into shelter making them more difficult to locate. The cooler winter temperature (down to -5 degreesC) also causes them to retreat further into shelter. Since my temperature was 20 degrees celsius my slaters could slightly burrow deeper into the soil, but not so much that I wouldn't be able to find them.

The soil moisture for my experiment to be fair had to be the same though out each trial, to insure I did this I took a measurements with the moisture meter before and after each trial. From my results table the only container that lost moisture was the container with 50ml of water it it, with the first 3 trials being on level 4 of the moisture meter, then dropping down to level 3 on the last two trials. I don't believe this affected my results as trial 2 for the 50ml container has the same amount of slaters a trail 5, showing that it hasn't effected the slaters choice in habitat.

Porcellio scaber are common and widely distributed, It, unlike other common species possesses Pseudotrachae. Pseudotrachae allows the Porcellio scaber to breathe in a drier climate. Usually Porcellio scaber’s are about 16mm long and 6-7mm wide. Porcellio scaber can be found under stones and logs, but are even more common in old walls. If you take a torch to a tree trunk or a wall on a humid night, you will