Adam Pence

Adam Pence Poems

The Best Poem Of Adam Pence

The Butterfly Life Cycle

Let's explore a butterfly's life cycle in detail, including all four stages of life. All butterflies have "complete metamorphosis." To grow into an adult they go through 4 stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Each stage has a different goal - for instance, caterpillars need to eat a lot, and adults need to reproduce. Depending on the type of butterfly, the life cycle of a butterfly may take anywhere from one month to a whole year. You can print out this Butterfly Life Cycle coloring page to follow along as we talk about the 4 stages. The First Stage: The Egg
Learn about the Butterfly Life Cycle, about the Monarch's life, see Pictures and find Links to more articles. Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf
A butterfly starts life as a very small, round, oval or cylindrical egg.The coolest thing about butterfly eggs, especially monarch butterfly eggs, is that if you look close enough you can actually see the tiny caterpillar growing inside of it. Some butterfly eggs may be round, some oval and some may be ribbed while others may have other features. The egg shape depends on the type of butterfly that laid the egg.

Butterfly eggs are usually laid on the leaves of plants, so if you are actively searching for these very tiny eggs, you will have to take some time and examine quite a few leaves in order to find some.

The Second Stage: The Larva (Caterpillar)When the egg finally hatches, most of you would expect for a butterfly to emerge, right?Well, not exactly.In the butterfly's life cycle, there are four stages and this is only the second stage.Butterfly larvae are actually what we call caterpillars. Caterpillars do not stay in this stage for very long and mostly, in this stage all they do is eat.

When the egg hatches, the caterpillar will start his work and eat the leaf they were born onto. This is really important because the mother butterfly needs to lay her eggs on the type of leaf the caterpillar will eat - each caterpillar type likes only certain types of leaves. Since they are tiny and can not travel to a new plant, the caterpillar needs to hatch on the kind of leaf it wants to eat.

Caterpillars need to eat and eat so they can grow quickly. When a caterpillar is born, they are extremely small. When they start eating, they instantly start growing and expanding.Their exoskeleton (skin)does not stretch or grow, so they grow by "molting" (sheding the outgrown skin)several times while it grows.

Adam Pence Comments