Sample information

Order: Dermaptera

Family: forficulidae

Size & Shape:

• Elongated, flat bodies, about 0.5 to 0.75 inches long. Colors range from reddish-brown to dark brown or black.
• They have short, leathery wing covers, though they are weak flyers and rarely fly.

Diet:

•  They eat decaying organic matter, but will also chew holes in flower petals, soft fruit, and young seedlings. They act as partial pest control by eating aphids and mites.

Reproduction

• Remarkably good mothers; females build burrows, brood their eggs, and protect the young for several months

Methods

DNA Extraction

We dissected the Rolly Polly by isolating its abdomen to crush it for our sample DNA extraction.

Gel Electrophoresis

The following lane order for our gel:

1. N/A
2. N/A
3. Ladder
4. Sample #1 – Moth
5. Sample #2 – Rolly Polly
6. Sample #3 – Fly
7. Sample #4 – Pincher
8. Sample #5 – Spider
9. Wolbachia Positive Control
10. Wolbachia Negative Control
11. Positive DNA
12. N/A
13. N/A
14. N/A
15. N/A

Results

Given that the first run of our gel electrophoresis resulted in invalid data, we had to rerun our samples in our to get valid results. Our confidence levels were low at first but once we ran out gel and got bands for all of our wells. We are more than confident that our results are reliable due to our extensive precautions that we took and the multiple trial and errors.