Author:
laquanna
Mentor
Dr. Familton
Abstract:
The Monarch migration is endangered. We need to know as much as possible about them. Finding that there is a difference between Male and female orange/Black color ratio is part of the problem. The more we know the differences between the male and females there is a higher chance for us to increase the population. The colors are very similar, and the differences are subtle that only the trained eye could tell the difference between male and female. The approach I took to solve this problem is to photoshop butterfly pictures that Dr. Familton took of the butterflies he raised so that they can be analyzed by a color extractor. When the butterflies are uploaded to this program it breaks down each color by percentages for you to analyze. This process is not straight forward. You must compare the color percentages to the actual colors you see on the wings of the butterfly. The color percentages and the color you see on the wings may not always match therefore you much use your best judgement to determine the actual color of the wing. Once this is done you add all the color percentages to get the total sum. The expected results would be that the males have more orange and less black. And the females have less orange and black compared to male. The implication of my answers is that we willbe able to tell male and female monarchs by only knowing their orange to black color ratios.
