Studying insects in the lab is ideal to study behavior, while being able to manupulate environmental conditions. The Observer XT will let you code, select, and analyze these behaviors in great detail. 

• Score behaviors live or from previously recorded video files.
• Code detailed behavior rapidly and accurately.
• Concentrate completely on the insects behavior; The Observer XT automatically adds time stamps to the logged events. 
• Playback specific parts of the video to take a second look or to edit or add events.
• Score from multiple coding stations simultaneously with The Observer XT Coder Licenses.
• Select data for analysis in order to calculate statistics on certain parts of your data. 
• Calculate statistics automatically, such as the total duration an insect was probing the plant surface.
• Make clips of the video parts of interest to you.

Introduction
Studying insects in the lab is an ideal way to investigate behavioral traits. Major advantages include the possibility to manipulate experimental conditions and to establish stock cultures. Insect characteristics that might be of influence on their behavior can be determined, such as sex, wing size, and physiological status. Many insect lab studies concentrate on the influence of synthetic or plant compounds on searching, foraging, and oviposition behavior in pest insect species or enemies of these species.

Noldus provides you with the perfect solution for entomology research. Combine The Observer® XT with our video and computer hardware and services to collect and analyze insect behavioral data in great detail.

How it works
When working with insects in a laboratory environment, video recording is easy and practical. Especially when working with multiple insects, highly active insects, or when you want to score behavior in high detail, scoring from video offers many advantages. The Observer XT gives you the opportunity to use previously recorded video files, but you can also use The Observer XT to acquire video material and even score some of the behaviors live. The flexible playback functions allow you to quickly scroll through less interesting parts, or playback at a lower speed to score certain interesting parts more accurately. Set up your experiment by designing a coding scheme (ethogram) on the computer with The Observer XT software installed. This coding scheme contains each behavior and each insect you want to study, and their corresponding codes. You are then ready to score the behaviors: simply press the corresponding key of the keyboard or click on the behavior in the coding scheme, while The Observer XT automatically adds time stamps. The jog/shuttle function on the keyboard helps you to quickly control and position the video.

Observations can contain as much detail as you need. You can link so-called ‘modifiers’ to behaviors to add extra information. For example, when investigating the influence of a compound on feeding behavior, the behavior ‘arrestment on grain’ can be extended with the modifier group ‘infestation of grain’, containing modifier values ‘infested’ and ‘not infested’. To add extra information to each observation, you can define independent variables, such the physiological state or the gender of the insect, or the absence or presence of an odor cue.

Research on insects can involve a lot of work when it is time to score the behaviors. Especially in cases in which you have a lot of video material to analyze, or if you want to score insect behavior in high detail. Setting up a multiple coding station configuration might be very useful. In cases like these, The Observer XT Coder Licenses provide an efficient tool to let several observers score behavior at the same time on different computers. These cost-effective licenses limit the use of The Observer XT program to data scoring and visualization only. After all observations are completed, you can easily combine them in your main project with a full license. To guarantee reliable results, The Observer XT offers you the opportunity to perform inter-observer reliability analysis.

When observations are completed, you can use The Observer XT to select data based on subjects, behaviors, independent variables, or modifiers. This allows you to only visualize or analyze a specific part of the data. This is extremely useful when comparing observations with different experimental conditions, for instance when assessing the influence of the odor of a host on searching and oviposition behavior in its parasitoid. Behavioral data in the absence and presence of the odor can be analyzed separately and subsequently compared. After selection, The Observer XT automatically calculates a wealth of statistics including rates, latencies, durations, and mean values. Optionally, use Theme™ to take your analysis to the next level, detecting repeating sequences patterns in behavior that are impossible to reveal by the naked eye or by basic statistical programs.