Megan

Grade 6
Plymouth Middle School
Robbinsdale School District 281
Plymouth, MN

Abstract

I tested to see which food the adult monarchs liked the best.  I conducted my experiment by putting food in the cage with the monarchs and measuring how long they had their proboscis down on the food.  I was very interested to learn more about what they eat.  I was very surprised to find out that the monarchs liked Kool-Aid the best.  They also liked apples, oranges, bananas, flowers, and sugar water.  If I do this again, I would like to have more time to observe the monarchs.  I learned that monarchs eat a variety of things and that they will eat almost anything, or at least try it.  I found out that monarchs like food with lots of sugar best.

Purpose

I wanted to find out what foods the adult monarch prefers to eat.

Hypothesis

I think the monarchs will like the foods that are juicy and have lots of sugar in them.

Procedure

First, I cut up the foods and put them on a dish in the cage with the butterflies.   I put liquids in a dish with a cotton ball.  Then I watched to see if the monarchs put their proboscises down.  When they did, I timed how long they ate.   If they ate more than 30 seconds, I assumed they liked the food.

Materials

1. monarch butterflies
2. foods
       apple, banana, carrot, apple juice, Kool-Aid, milk, cranberries, berries, flowers, kiwi, sugar water, lemon juice, pickle juice, juicy juice, hummingbird food, watermelon, grapes, grape jelly, plum, pineapple, and oranges
3. cage
4. timer
5. data chart

Results

I found that the monarchs preferred the Kool-Aid.  They also liked oranges, sugar water, apples, bananas, and watermelon.

Conclusion

I found out that my hypothesis was correct.  The butterflies liked the sugary foods like Kool-Aid.  They also really liked the fruits and flowers.  The butterflies seemed to eat many different things and they tried most of it.

What I Would Do Differently

I got lots of my data from observations made by other people. Some people may not have been as accurate in their timing as I was.  I found that the monarchs didn't always eat when I wanted them to.  We had less monarchs to observe eating at the beginning and more toward the end (the weather was cold so we kept them in our cage longer).   The number of monarchs might have had an influence on the results.  Also, we did not give them the same foods at the end (we ran out of some) and a larger number of butterflies had a chance to eat some foods.

Observations

I found that when the butterflies first emerged, they didn't eat much.  After we had them for a day or two, they were more interested in eating.

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