Brought to you by: Kimberly Foreiter Clairminza Almonor Yadira Santos Cruz Pier Pointdujour

Brought to you by: Kimberly Foreiter Clairminza Almonor Yadira Santos Cruz Pier Pointdujour

The effect of the amount of light (window sill, cabinet) on the color of the earworm, pupa, and moth.

Corn earworms are a pest to America s farmers. Their cycle begins when mothers (moths) lay eggs on fresh corn silk. The body of a larvae is long and flexible. They are green with black heads. They also have thick, black hair over their bodies. Corn earworms are found mainly in August and September.

Corn earworms cause a lot of damage to corn fields. They can grow up to 1 ½ inches long. They have stripes on their skin. The colors can range from yellow to black. A corn earworm s skin can be pink, green, a cream color, or yellow.

Research: If the worms are placed in the darkness, they will develop a lighter exterior color. Null: If the worms are placed in the darkness, they will not have an effect on the exterior color.

Dark cabinet/drawer Window sill Magnifying glass Forceps Probes Ruler 5 corn ear worms 2 liter bottles (2) 2cm. Wide 6 inches long strips of paper (2) 2 coffee filters 4 teaspoons of dirt 10 grams of instant nectar powder Roll of Tape

Grow corn earworms at regular environments for 2 weeks. Separate the worms so that two are by a window sill, two inside a dark drawer, and one held constant. Check everyday, the worms will begin to pupate at 3-4 weeks. Once they pupate you must build a container.

Cut the soda bottle at the top, place the container half full with instant nectar mix and tape it to the middle of the bottle. With the 2 strands place them at opposing sides of the bottles and tape on the coffee filter on top, put back into cabinet and windowsill. Take observations on color differences, activity.

he table is based on a Subjective scale

This is our control worm. Yadira Santos-Cruz Habitat for worms by the window sill Yadira Santos-Cruz Habitat for worms in the dark cabinet. Yadira Santos-Cruz

Pier is observing her moth Yadira Santos-Cruz This the pupated worm in the light Yadira Santos-Cruz The first moth out in the dark Yadira Santos-Cruz

The moth from the light is pumping its wings, one wing is shattered Yadira Santos-Cruz The moth from the dark is also pumping its wings Yadira Santos-Cruz

In this experiment we investigated the effect of the amount of light on the exterior color of the corn earworm. We used two different settings of light, sunlight by a windowsill and a dark cabinet. The research hypothesis was rejected by the data so far because the worms in the dark actually have a darker color, this may be because these creatures are nocturnal, once they are placed in the dark 24/7 they never rest, the worms overwork them selves by constantly moving, eating, flying. Compare this to a human, when a human exercises vigorously for long periods of time they begin to turn red, seem exhausted, hungry, thirsty, the body is being worked. The worms in the dark turned into a darker shade of their color span. Some major finding in this experiment were that the moths in the dark lived a longer time period as moths than the worms by the windowsill.

Also, the worms in the dark were more active at all times. The worms pupa color was also affected by the light differences. The worms in the light were smaller in both wingspan and worm length. The moths in the light spent the majority of their time hanging from the coffee filter, while the worms in the dark were in constant motion. Other researchers found that light actually harms these creatures when exposed for long periods of time. They begin to go blind, less active, and have less energy. Corn earworms spend the majority of their lives inside the cozy dark corn silk, later on in their life they drop down deep into the dirt, (couple of inches) and pupate for 13-18 days. They later turn into moths which only come out at night since they are nocturnal and spend their day in a dark bushes or tree creaks and crevices.

Some recommendations would be to find a control nectar that corn ear worms will eat willingly. Some possible applications are to test if the corn ear worms skin would become sensitive to light after being in the dark for so long. Thus if farmers use this efficiently and peel the silk back from the corn early then the corn earworms will die from sensitivity to UV rays.

Cook, Kelly A., and Rick Weinzierl. "Corn Earworm." IPM Integrated Pest Management. Integrated Pest Management, 2004. Web. 2 May 2011. "Corn Earworm Information." gardenguides.com. Demand Media, 2010. Web. 2 May 2011. Hagerman, Paul. "Corn Earworm." Ontario. Queen's Printer for Ontario, 07 Apr. 2011. Web. 2 May 2011