Null: The color of the food will not affect the growth of the caterpillar.

1. The effect of food coloring on a caterpillar’s appetite. Carolina Almirola, Johanna Eppes-Lecht, Kenzo Ramos, Anthony Concia, Jacob Mosli, Nychel Marshall. RESULTS INTRODUCTION Our results (Table 1) showed that 29 of our 30 caterpillars survived. It took an average of 14.08 days for the caterpillars in the treatment group and, it took the control group 16.75 days to pupate. Although the treatment group pupated slightly faster than control, our t-test showed that the difference was not significant (P= 0.72). , Research shows that the color of food attracts a person and that the color red especially is a able to make some one hungry. We want to see if this is applicable to caterpillars. If the caterpillars in the experimental group see the color of the food, they might be attracted to it, eat more and therefore grow faster. Table 1. Condition of caterpillars on each day of the experiment. HYPOTHESIS Null: The color of the food will not affect the growth of the caterpillar. Alternative: The color of the food will affect the growth of the caterpillar, enabling it to reach the chrysalis stage faster. MATERIALS AND METHODS In our experiment we added red food coloring to the caterpillar’s food. We used a plastic syringe and added 3 cc of distilled water and 3 cc of red food coloring. Then we mixed it with the end of a plastic paintbrush, until it was red. Then we cautiously added the caterpillars into their own plastic cup. The overall weight of the cup with food was 7.2 grams. We counted the days until they reached their chrysalis stage. We also gave each one of them a name. As the chrysalises pupated we waited until they hatched and turned into butterflies so we could let them go. We used a plastic syringe, 30 plastic cups, 2 containers, distilled water, caterpillar food, and 30 painted lady butterfly cater- pillars.We used a student’s t-Test to analyze our results. Treatment Control CONCLUSIONS We learned that the color of the food does not increase or decrease the time it takes a caterpillar to pupate. This may be for several different reasons. One is they might be color blind. Another is they might not notice the color because when they are a caterpillar their eyes may not be fully developed. Also the butterfly did not have a change in color but their web was the color of their food. By: Monkey Mayhem