The question led her to conduct an experiment that tracked painted lady butterflies’ flower preferences. Her project, which earned her a 2011 Young Naturalist Award, is described in the essay Butterfly Buffet: The Feeding Preferences of Painted Ladies.
Katelyn hypothesized that butterflies given a choice of flowers would display a preference for certain colors or shapes. To test her idea, Katelyn set up elaborate mini-ecosystems, complete with various floral arrangements, and recorded each time a butterfly inserted its proboscis into a flower, paying special attention to whether butterflies returned to the same flower.
Her results showed that painted lady butterflies prefer purple flowers in clusters. Katelyn reasoned that butterflies may prefer the clustered shape because it gives them ample space for landing, and that their fondness for purple could be linked to the color receptors found in butterfly eyes. “Butterflies can see ultraviolet light,” explains Katelyn in her essay, “And purple is the wavelength of visible light closest to ultraviolet.”
Now that Katelyn is a step closer to understanding butterflies’ preferences, she’s determined to contribute to conservation programs that provide butterflies with their flowers of choice. She plans to set up a way station where monarch butterflies can land and feed during their long migration to escape cold winters.
To see live butterflies flutter and feed in a vivarium, visit The Butterfly Conservatory at the Museum, every winter from October to May.
The Young Naturalist Awards are proudly supported by Alcoa Foundation.