What is a suitable species of invertebrate to use for a scientific experiment on "innate behaviour"?

Question

I am assigned to find a type of invertebrate on which I can conduct experiments and examine one or more of their innate behaviours.
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NOTE: Innate behaviour refers to the actions of an animal or human that aren't quite described in genes, but are expressed without prior experience through watching another individual. They are the responses to a stimulus that are quickly figured out through an attempt. (definition from Wikipedia)

Answer 1

slugs

Answer 2

The Wikipedia definition isn't correct in that it discounts the role of genes. In fact, the opposite is true. If innate behaviors are expressed without prior experience, then they must be a function of the genome or epigentic factors (I know I just all technical there). All animals have innate behaviors (including humans!). For example, a human baby will start to suckle shortly after birth - this is innate. However, determing if a behavior is truly innate is difficult. How do you know that the behavior you just observed wasn't learned at some point before you started observing the animal? It is generally believed that most behaviors in "simple" invertebrates are innate. However, "advanced" invertebrates (like insects & cephlapods) can show pretty sophisticated forms of learning - which by itself ins't innate. But they may have innate mechanisms that allow them to perform these types of learning tasks. For example, wasps can learn the position of their nests by "memorizing" the position of objects around their nests (sometimes with a sophistication that puts humans to shame). So, here's the point. This "assignment" was very naive - however, your teacher or professor won't appreciate hearing that appraisal. What you need to do is first decide on an organism you can easily obtain & maintain. Do some research on that specific animal to learn about its behaviors. Define what you (or more wisely your instructor) mean by "innate" & study those behaviors.

Answer 3

Innate behavior is built into the organism. "Nate" refers to birth, so you could think of it as inborn. Here's a definition from http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/I/InnateBehavior.html

"innate behavior = behavior determined by the "hard-wiring" of the nervous system. It is usually inflexible, a given stimulus triggering a given response. A salamander raised away from water until long after its siblings begin swimming successfully will swim every bit as well as they the very first time it is placed in the water. Clearly this rather elaborate response is "built in" in the species and not something that must be acquired by practice. "

You could use isopods which are commonly called roly-polies, garden snails, freshwater snails, earthworms, or any invertebrates that are easily collected in your area.

Answer 4

Use Aplysia. Its a great specimen for that kind of study.