Carolina Biological Supply Company

Butterflies in the Classroom

• To study the painted lady butterfly life cycle

• To learn setup and caretechniques

• To explore caterpillar anatomy

• To learn interesting butterfly facts

Session Objectives

• Easy to maintainin the classroom

NOTE: Carolina’s painted lady butterflies are laboratory reared. Natural populations are not depleted.

Materials

• Complete metamorphosis: egg, larva, pupa, adult

• Approximately 4 weeks from eggs to adults

Eggs

Larva

Pupa

Adult

Let’s Look at the Life Cycle

Observe life cycle:look at containers oneach table.

Examine live samples of 4 stages: egg, larva, pupa, adult

Observation Activity

Classroom butterfly requirements:

• Temperature—72 to 78° F

• Humidity—high for adults (mist habitat)

• Food—artificial food for larvae provided inculture cup

NOTE: Do not place culture cup/larvae in direct sunlight.

Adults require artificial nectar or flowering plants and water for proper nutrition.

Group Interaction and Discussion

• Raised on live plants or artificial diet

• Culture cups sustaincaterpillars through pupa stage

• Move pupae to cage before adult stage emerges

Adult paintedlady butterfly on mallowplant

Painted lady pupalstage

Supporting Information

Let a Simple Learning Cycle Shape the Inquiry

• ENGAGE

• EXPLORE

• EXPLAIN

• EXTEND

• EVALUATE

A Closer Look

Engage

• How many legs do insects have?

• How many legs do caterpillars have?

• Are they all real legs?

A Closer Look

Explore

• Use a soft brush to transfer a caterpillar from a culture cup into a Living Wonders™ View Chamber.

• Observe the caterpillar. Invert the chamber to view the dorsal and ventral sides.

• Describe the structure of the legs.

• Observe the shape of the feet.

Explain and Extend

• There are many misconceptions about caterpillars.

• Many children’s books portray an incorrect image of caterpillars.

• Discuss some of the basic morphology of a caterpillar and compare it to these images.

A Closer Look

Butterfly Necklace

Materials:

• Cup with 1 oz of diet

• Lid with ribbon attached

• Small paintbrush

• Small butterfly larva

• Paper disk

You Wear It Well

• Add food to 1-oz cup (may be prepared for you).

• Transfer larva to culture cup.

• Place 1 or 2 butterfly larvae in small vial.

• Add paper disk and snap lid in place.

Butterfly Necklace

After chrysalis forms, open lid and move paper disk with attached chrysalis to inside of butterfly habitat.

Wear proudly

Moving Pupae to Cage

• Remove lid from culture chamber.

• Remove tissue with attached pupae from lid.

• Attach tissue to inside side of cage (with tape or pin).

Note: Discard malformed pupae. If pupa detaches from tissue, tape back. Place tape across abdomen.

• Symmetry: Bilateral vs radial

Example of bilateralsymmetry

Example of radialsymmetry

Butterflies as a Tool to Teach Various Topics

• Human impact on nature:Peppered moth story

Butterflies as a Tool to Teach Various Topics

• Plant light house/butterfly cage• Explanation of Wisconsin Fast Plants® life

cycle (host plant)• Tandem life cycle of cabbage white butterfly

Life cycle of Wisconsin Fast Plants® withcabbage whitebutterflies

Interdependence of Organisms

Cabbage White Butterflies

Cabbage White Caterpillars Feeding on Fast Plants® Leaf

Devoured Plants

Larva Food Choice: “A Salad Smorgasbord”

One Hour Later

Caterpillar Preparing to Pupate

Cabbage White Chrysalids

Butterflies on Film Can Feeder

Ovipositing Cabbage White Butterfly

Butterfly Oviposition Experiment

• Butterfly wings are colored due to scales

Example of butterfly scales

Let’s Learn More

• Harvester butterfly larvae are carnivorous and eat wooly aphids

• Fast? Clocked at 30 miles per hour

• Largest? Queen Victoria, 2–3 grams

Let’s Learn More

• Smallest? Pygmy Blue, a few thousandths of a single gram

Example of Western Pygmy Blue Butterfly

. . . And a Little More

• Some caterpillars are capable of eating poisonous plants. These poisons are deadly to other animals.

• Caterpillars that eat poisonous plants absorb and detoxify compounds. These then provide defense against predators.

And a Little More

• Live butterfly necklace

• Living Wonders™ View Chamber

• Butterflies in the Classroom Instruction Manual

• Various other printed instructional materials

Take-Home Materials

Resources from Carolina

Kits discussed in workshop session:

• Butterflies in the Classroom Kits(catalog no. 144012 and 144014)

Resources from Carolina

Kits discussed in workshop session:

• Life in Balance: Plants and Butterfly Kit(catalog no. 158986)

Need more butterfly kits and related products? See page 21 of the Butterflies in the Classroom manual.

Resources from Carolina

Carolina Free Resources

Carolina offers many free resources to help support teachers.

Evaluations: Share Your Thoughts!

Scale = 1 to 10

10 = Outstanding

9 = Above Average

8, 7 = Average

6, 5, 4 = Below Average

3, 2, 1 = Well Below Average

Please provide comments!

Carolina Biological Supply Company

Thank you for investing your time in our training program.

For all of your classroom needs, check out our Web site,

www.carolina.com.

Enjoy the rest of the conference!