In addition, it could be expected that complete dustbaths were more frequently observed on substrates that are supposed to be preferred for dustbathing (Van Liere et al., 1990; Vestergaard et al., 1990; Van Liere and Siard, 1991). In this experiment we confirmed these data, as we found that on woodshavings more incomplete dustbaths wereperformed as compared to sand. The total duration of dustbathing however was higher on woodshavings as compared to sand, which was a result of the fact thatdustbathing more frequently occurred on woodshavings but most of these dustbaths were incomplete.