​Purpose

  The purpose of my experiment was to try to raise two generations of the Painted Lady butterflies. 

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Hypothesis

   My hypothesis is that I will be able to raise both generations

 

Materials 

1. Butterfly habitat​

2. Butterfly larva kit

3. Potted daises

4. Oranges

5. A few cotton balls

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​Resources for flying habitat

1. 2 sheer curtains​ sewn into rectangular prism

2. Small table 

3. 4 certain rods

4. Tape

5. Small rocks (not pebbles)

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​Procedure

Butterfly larva​

1. Keep them in the cup with there food

2. In a 73 degrees Fahrenheit room

3. Keep them in indirect sun light

4. DO NOT OPEN THE CUP BECAUSE THE FOOD WILL BECOME CONTAMINATED AND MOLD your larva WILL DIE

5. Wait for them to crawl to the top of the lid and be in their chrysalis for 2-3 days

   • The black fuzzy things are not mold it is body parts they have out grown.

   • The webbing in the  cup is normal it is to help with the climb to the top of the cup 

   • When the larvae are in there chrysalis they will most likely be attached to the paper at the top

6. Unzip the habitat before moving the pupa to the butterfly habitat 

7. Slowly remove the lid of the larva habitat

8. Carefully lift the paper chrysalis side up on to your palm ​​

   • If any of the ​chrysalis shake It is just a self defense mechanism you are NOT KILLING THEM​​

9.  Carefully pin the paper with the  chrysalis on the  inside and the ​opposite side of the zipper of the habitat 

10.  Put a moist towel inside the habitat

11. Keep the temperate the same as when larvae.

12. Once the first butterfly emerges almost Immediately feed them oranges,sugar water cotton balls,and rotting banana 

    • The red liquid is NOT blood it is experiment.​

13. Feed them once a day​

14. Once the butterflies are to old to lay eggs put the plant with the eggs in the larger habitat

15. Once the plants are in the larger habitat transfer the butterflies to the larger habitat

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Sugar water cotton balls​

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1. 2 teaspoons of sugar

2.  1 cup of water

3. Dip the cotton ball in the water

4. once you take it out before feeding it to the butterflies

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The large netted habitat 

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1. Collect your materials

2. Sew your curtains into a rectangular prism except for one side which will be your door to get in  

3. Flip over the table  you will use

4. Tape the four rods to the legs 

5. Put the curtains over top of the table rods

6. Tape all of the sides down except the side of the door for the doors side use the rocks to hold it down

7. Data

Please take a look at the data gathered here

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Analysis

      During this experiment I realized that that this would take more than one set of butterflies. This section of the experiment will be known as the control. I will try again but with home gown plant instead of store bought pants which could have had pesticides.  Once I saw how many of the eggs there were I thought that I would need a larger habitat for them, I also realized that they would need more food than one plant. I noticed that one of my butterflies kept landing on his back when landing and got stuck multiple times on bowls and other walled items. Because I notice this I will not use any walled items in the habitat. There are many reasons that the butterflies hatched but did not survive are there could have been pesticides, bugs, or the parents could have been breaded so they could not have larva successfully.  One of the reasons the company may have breaded them in that way is because the Painted Lady are the most populated breed of butterfly.

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 Sources of error

1. When counting the eggs some most likely fell of the plant​

2. When counting the eggs I could have miss counted

3. The temperature could have gotten to cold at night

4. There could have had pesticides on the plant

5. There could have been some bug

6. There might have been a virus

7. ​

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Conclusion

My hypothesis was that I would be able to raise both generations​. My hypothesis was only partially wrong because I was able to raise the first generation but the second generation died for causes we are still trying to figure out.