Butterfly Clues by the School Kitchen Window

The Window Garden Journal

The school kitchen has a sunny window shelf where students grow herbs. Painted lady butterflies sometimes visit the nearby flowers. The butterflies are the same species, but their wings can have different shades of orange. The ecology club wondered whether a wing shade could help some butterflies in different ways.

First, students made 12 paper butterfly models with pale orange wings and 12 with deep orange wings. They placed the models near flowers. Classmates played hungry birds and used a paper beak to peck each model they spotted in one minute. Seven pale-wing models were pecked, and four deep-wing models were pecked. This model test gave clues about what might happen when a bird hunts, but it did not test live butterflies.

Next, students watched female butterflies choose between a pale-wing male and a deep-wing male. In 10 observations, the female approached the deep-wing male first 7 times and the pale-wing male first 3 times. Later, the club recorded pairs that produced eggs. Two pale-wing pairs produced eggs, and five deep-wing pairs produced eggs. The records did not show what would happen in every place or season.