Food eaten at this time is stored and used later as an adult. Caterpillars can grow times their size during this stage. For example, a monarch butterfly egg is the size of a pinhead and the caterpillar that hatches from this tiny egg isn't much bigger. But it will grow up to 2 inches long in several weeks. When the caterpillar is full grown and stops eating, it becomes a pupa.
The pupa of butterflies is also called a chrysalis. Depending on the species, the pupa may suspended under a branch, hidden in leaves or buried underground. The pupa of many moths is protected inside a coccoon of silk. This stage can last from a few weeks, a month or even longer. Some species have a pupal stage that lasts for two years. It may look like nothing is going on but big changes are happening inside. Special cells that were present in the larva are now growing rapidly. They will become the legs, wings, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly.
Many of the original larva cells will provide energy for these growing adult cells. The adult stage is what most people think of when they think of butterflies. They look very different from the larva. The caterpillar has a few tiny eyes, stubby legs and very short antennae. The story usually begins with a very hungry caterpillar hatching from an egg.
The caterpillar, or what is more scientifically termed a larva, stuffs itself with leaves, growing plumper and longer through a series of molts in which it sheds its skin. One day, the caterpillar stops eating, hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself a silky cocoon or molts into a shiny chrysalis. Within its protective casing, the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging as a butterfly or moth.
But what does that radical transformation entail? How does a caterpillar rearrange itself into a butterfly? What happens inside a chrysalis or cocoon? First, the caterpillar digests itself, releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.
But the contents of the pupa are not entirely an amorphous mess. Certain highly organized groups of cells known as imaginal discs survive the digestive process. Before hatching, when a caterpillar is still developing inside its egg, it grows an imaginal disc for each of the adult body parts it will need as a mature butterfly or moth—discs for its eyes, for its wings, its legs and so on. We all love butterflies for their beautiful, brightly-coloured wings. But did you know that these fab flyers begin life as something completely different?
Join Nat Geo Kids as we follow the life-cycle of this quirky creature, from the egg to the air! It all starts when a female butterfly lays her eggs, usually on leaves or stems of plants.
Inside these tiny eggs, caterpillars grow. Depending on the species, the eggs can vary in shape and texture — they can be round, oval or cylindrical, and smooth, bumpy or wrinkled. The time it takes for the eggs to hatch can also vary — in some species, they will hatch within a few weeks and in others they will only hatch once the weather is warm enough.
Ask your parents to check out Nat Geo Kids magazine! Once ready, the caterpillar leaves its egg home and enters the big outside world!
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