The Development of Vanessa cardui Butterflies in Microgravity

Presentation on theme: "The Development of Vanessa cardui Butterflies in Microgravity"— Presentation transcript:

1 The Development of Vanessa cardui Butterflies in Microgravity
Kent Place School, Summit NJ Co-Principal Investigators: Olivia Adamczyk, Alexandra Anderson, Isabella Diaz, Nora Lee, Aya Mtume, Abigail Wall, Elizabeth Wyshner Teacher Facilitators: Maura Crowe, Rebecca Van Ry: Kent Place School

2 Overview of Purpose Purpose: Examine the role of microgravity on the growth and life cycle of Vanessa cardui Role of Gravity: Butterflies have to suspend upside-down in order to pupate correctly. Since there is no up or down in microgravity, the larvae may have a difficult time being able to pupate and grow. Justification: Long-term benefits of pollination and to investigate sustainable insect life cycles in microgravity.

3 Research Vanessa cardui has a wingspan of 5-9 centimeters.
Egg is about size of a pinhead (1.5 mm.) The lifespan of the Vanessa cardui is 2- 5 weeks. On Earth, they form into a chrysalis by hanging upside down. Microgravity could impact their development due to their need to hang upside down for 7-10 days to go through metamorphosis.

4 Pre-Flight Experiments
The team tested the ability to keep Vanessa cardui eggs dormant, eggs were refrigerated for four days. Hatching of larvae was successfully delayed by several days. Refrigerated eggs hatched, three larvae successfully pupated a week after the control larvae pupated. Larvae subjected to dark conditions developed normally from larvae to chrysalis, emerged as healthy adults Experimentation with refrigeration time and successful metamorphosis will continue over the summer. Control egg caterpillars Refrigerated egg caterpillars

5 FME Tube Volume 1: 5.0 grams of culture medium larvae food for the Vanessa cardui Volume 2: 4 Vanessa cardui eggs from Carolina Biological Supply Company Volume 3: 3.5 milliliters of 3.7% formaldehyde in phosphate buffered saline Crew Interactions Days: Day A+2 = unclamp clamp A Day U-5 = unclamp clamp B, shake gently for 30 seconds

6 What We Hope To Learn Hypothesis: theVanessa cardui larvae will be able to emerge from an egg and develop into the chrysalis stage in microgravity. This is an important topic to observe because in microgravity, there is no up nor down; hence, the butterflies will not be able to hang “upside down” in order to form their pupas. They may have difficulty making and staying in chrysalis form. If they are able to make it to the chrysalis stage, it can be inferred that they will possibly emerge as butterflies. This leads to them potentially being able to pollinate plants.

7 Acknowledgements Kent Place School Meg Ballard, Ph.D Verizon