Abstract

1
A SWEET TREAT FOR THE CATERPILLARS
The Food Processors Puru Bagga, Tiffany Chen,
Jordan Davide, Andy Gonzalez, Neuton Richardson,
and Dina Tazkarji
The Effect of Fructose on Development

• Methods
• Gather the ingredients and then label all the
  containers, T1-T16 (purple), and C1-C16 (brown).
• Fill a graduated cylinder to 15 ml of water and
  pour the water from graduated cylinder into a
  clear glass beaker.
• Add fructose and stir until the water cant
  dissolve anymore, making it saturated.
• Cut off the plastic wrapping from the food
  containers and label 2 of them C and 2 of them T.
  
• Take a thermometer out of its package and place
  it in its beaker. Take the temperature of the
  water and record it.
• Put 6.5 grams of food into the caterpillar
  containers, control group. Use an electronic
  scale to check that it is exactly 6.5 grams.
• Then flatten out the food so it would look like a
  floor. Afterwards, place caps onto the
  containers, but not completely so the
  caterpillars can breathe.
• Repeat these steps until all the containers hold
  6.5 grams of food in them.
• Add 7 drops of water into all the control
  containers.

• Abstract
• In our experiment we received 32 Painted Lady
  Butterflies and kept each in an individual
  container. There were 16 caterpillars in the
  control group and 16 caterpillars in the
  treatment group. The treatment group contained
  fructose inside of their food. Soon they became
  cocoons and we had to put them atop of a foldable
  paper. Everyday we recorded our data and observed
  the caterpillars, 1 caterpillar in the control
  group died and 4 in the treatment group died.
  According to the chi-square test, there was no
  significant difference between the treatment and
  the control group.
• Problem Statement
• Does fructose affect the life cycle of the
  caterpillars?
• Hypothesis
• Null The fructose will not affect the life
  cycle of the caterpillars.
• Alternative Yes, the fructose will affect the
  life cycle of the caterpillars. It will affect
  their diet, which might cause the caterpillars to
  die.
• Background Info
• Name Painted Lady
• Scientific Name Vanessa Car dui
• Life Cycle
• Egg 3 to 5 days
• Larva 5 to 10 days
• Metamorphosis (Chrysalis) 7 to 10 days
• The butterfly emerges 2 weeks
• Fun Facts

Lived or Died

Results 5 of our caterpillars died.
4 in the Treatment group died and 1 in the
control group. The average temperature for all
the caterpillars was 24 degrees
Celsius. Chi-Square Test


Observed Predicted
C-Live 15 13.5
C-Died 1 2.5
T-Live 12 13.5
T-Died 4 2.5
Days to Pupation
Discussion
Our problem statement was does fructose affect
the life cycle of the caterpillars. Our null
hypothesis was that the fructose will not affect
the life cycle of the caterpillars and our
alternative hypothesis was yes, the fructose will
affect the life cycle of the caterpillars. Our
results showed that there was no significant
difference between the treatment group (fructose)
and the control group. That means that our null
hypothesis was correct and our alternative
hypothesis was incorrect. In total, 5 of our
Painted Lady Butterflies died, 1 in control, and
4 in treatment. From this, we can tell that the
fructose did not necessarily affect the growth,
but we did notice that more of the treatment
group died then the control group, but since
there was no significant difference its not that
important. It took 19-21 days for the Painted
Lady Butterflies to leave their cocoons in both
the control and the treatment group. Its
possible that the food already prepared for the
caterpillars contain fructose already and the
extra added did not affect their metabolism.
Another possibility was that we did not add
enough fructose into the food. If we had added
more, its possible that there would have been a
significant difference. A difficulty in this
experiment was that it was very hard to
distinguish whether the caterpillars were dead or
alive when they were reaching the cocoon stage.
When the caterpillars were beginning to come out,
they would start to shake and fall down from the
foldable. To fix this problem, next time we might
try to make the foldable more stable by taping it
onto the bottom of the box. From this project, we
were able to experience raising live Painted Lady
Butterflies and be able to watch it grow through
its different phases.