This research revolves around the question ‘Do captive butterflies have a surface preference for participating in puddling behaviour?’. Puddling, or mud puddling, is a behaviour that’s carried out across many insects, but is most commonly seen in Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths). Its known as a form of feeding for butterflies, allowing them to obtain the appropriate nutrients including sodium, that are needed for them to carry out a variety of physiological and ethological functions; one being successful reproduction. In both captive and wild populations puddling can take place on a variety of surfaces, including, but not limited to: mud, blood, dung, urine and sand. To answer this question, observations of a population of captive butterflies will be conducted to note their puddling behaviour across many surfaces. It is believed that these observations will allow for the most natural behaviour to be expressed as well as gaining maximum data. Once data is collected and analysed it is believed that mud will be the most popular surface amongst the butterflies, as it is usually the most readily available surface for puddling. This research is important for a number of reasons including enhancing care of captive and wild populations of butterflies, and therein improving their numbers through giving them optimal chance of reproduction and longevity. This research is critical, as insects globally are facing a dramatic reduction in numbers, with as much as a 98% decrease across the past 35 years. By understanding smaller areas of insect behaviour, we may be able to curb this decline and increase population numbers.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/jajy-sg92
Pooler, Angel
Faculty of Health and Life Sciences
Year: 2020
© Pooler, Angel