Esther Zack, Resource Teacher, LAUSD and Los Angeles Educational Partnership

Question:

Which color of lantana plant do butterflies prefer to feed on: orange, yellow or purple?

Materials:

• Three lantana plants (purple, orange and yellow, 6-8" pots)
• Butterfly enclosure (large enough to contain the 3 plants)
• Butterflies (either captured from the wild or raised from caterpillars)

Procedure:

1. Conduct an investigation with your students regarding the various colors of lantana plants and their attracting properties for butterflies. You will need to place the three colors of lantana plants in the enclosure you have for the butterflies.

2. Have your students observe the butterflies in 10 or 15 minute intervals and record their observations using the Data Sheet provided (copy as needed). Put a check mark in the box on the Data Sheet that represents where the butterfly was located and what it was doing. Make the observations around the same times each day for approximately one week.
   Note: If there are several butterflies in the enclosure, be sure to distinguish on the Data Sheet which butterfly is being observed.

3. Put the data into a spreadsheet format. Create a bar graph of the spreadsheet data to view the results of the investigation.

Discussion Questions:

1. Which color plant did the butterflies prefer, if a preference was observed?

2. Why do you think that color was preferred (if there was a preference)?

3. If you had different species of butterflies in the enclosure, was there a distinction of color preference among the species?

4. How do you think the butterflies distinguished among the colors of flowers?

5. How could you structure another experiment on color preference without using flowers?

6. Were there any other characteristics of flowers that could attracted butterflies? Explain. How would you know whether or not this characteristic affected the results of the experiment you did?