fairfolio
Saved Projects

Life in the Spotlight

CSEF · 2006 Zoology

Madeline L.O. Blount · St. Anne School, Laguna Niguel

Overview

Objectives/Goals This experiment explores the question of how the amount of daylight affects the lifecycle of butterflies from the stages of larvae to chrysalis to butterfly. The goal for this experiment is to try to accelerate the lifecycle of butterflies. Methods/Materials Method: Put the larvae in individual cups of their own with 6 grams of food in each cup. Divide the caterpillars into three groups of ten and label using the labels. Put each group of ten into separate boxes and place them in a dark area (a closet) with the lights and timers set to various durations of daylight and darkness. Make observations daily until all of the caterpillars turn into butterflies. Materials: 30 Painted Lady butterfly larvae, 3 file storage boxes, 3 florescent daylight bulbs, 30 cups, a cup of larvae food, a scale, a dark place, 6 towels, butcher paper, 3 Intermatic Security timers, Scotch tape, 10 yellow circle stickers, 10 blue circle stickers, and 10 red circle stickers. Results The larvae that were exposed to the most light (18 hours of light/6 hours of darkness) became chrysalises and then butterflies first in 18 days. The second group (12 hours of light/12 hours of darkness) were second to finish in 19 days. The last group to finish were in the dark the most, (6 hours of light/18 hours of darkness) and finished the process in 20 days. Conclusions/Discussion The data I obtained supported my hypothesis that by having more light each day, caterpillars will develop through the process of a larvae to chrysalis to butterfly the fastest. This information could help endangered species of butterflies by reducing the amount of time in their lifecycle so that more lifecycles could be completed and the population increased.

Summary statement

This experiment explores how the amount of daylight affects the lifecycle of Painted lady butterflies.

Help received

My mother helped order Painted Lady larvae and buy the supplies. My dad and my teacher helped proof read the written report.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2006 Zoology · Entry J1903

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google