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Minibeasts and Habitats

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Minibeasts and Habitats

A garden habitat is changing. Use the evidence below to investigate minibeasts, what they need, and how they help an ecosystem. Answer in full sentences where asked.

Meet the minibeasts

Minibeast is an informal name for small animals without backbones. In a patch of damp garden, Maia finds an earthworm in the soil, a snail beneath a damp log, a spider among leaves and a bee visiting flowers. A minibeast’s habitat is a place that provides what it needs to survive, such as food, water, shelter and suitable conditions. Insects have six legs and three main body sections. Spiders are arachnids, which have eight legs and two main body sections.

1.Which animal in Maia’s garden is an arachnid rather than an insect? Give one feature that supports your answer.

2.Match each minibeast to the place described as its habitat in the garden evidence.

Earthworm
Snail
Spider
Bee

Visiting flowers
In the soil
Under a damp log
Among leaves

3.A gardener removes every log and lets the soil dry out. Which minibeast from the garden evidence is likely to be affected most directly by both changes? Explain why.

Follow the evidence

The class compares two similar garden beds for one week. Bed A has flowers and a damp patch of soil. Bed B has no flowers and dry soil. They count bee visits and earthworms found in a small soil sample.

Garden bed

Bee visits in one week

Earthworms in soil sample

A: flowers, damp soil

B: no flowers, dry soil

4.How many more bee visits were counted in Bed A than in Bed B?

5.Which statement is best supported by the class’s results?

More bee visits and earthworms were counted in the bed with flowers and damp soil.
Dry soil always attracts more earthworms.
Flowers stop bees from visiting a garden.
The class proved that soil moisture is the only thing that affects minibeasts.

6.The class counted animals in just two beds for one week. Give one reason the results cannot prove that flowers or damp soil alone caused the differences.

Minibeasts at work

Minibeasts have different roles. Bees can transfer pollen between flowers. Earthworms help mix and loosen soil as they move through it. Many spiders catch small animals in webs, and some minibeasts are food for birds and other animals. An animal that hunts and eats another animal is called a predator. The animal that is hunted and eaten is called the prey.

7.A bean plant makes fewer seeds when fewer bees visit its flowers. Explain a possible link between bee visits and seed production.

8.Complete the sentence: Most insects have legs and main body sections. Spiders have legs.

9.A bird eats a caterpillar. In this example, which organism is the predator and which is the prey?

10.Plan one practical change to make a garden more welcoming to minibeasts. Name a minibeast it could help and explain how the change meets one of its needs.