LIFE CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY

PRESENTED BY: LUCKY PRINCESS DELA CRUZ

ADULT

EGG

LARVA

PUPA

FOUR STAGES

LIFE CYCLE OF A BUTTERFLY

EGGSFemale butterflies lay many eggs

during their short life to insure that even a small number of these eggs will survive. Caterpillars (butterfly larva) hatch from eggs. The eggs are usually laid in a protected location on or near the plants that the soon-to-be caterpillar will eat. Most eggs are attached to the plant with a fast-drying glue-like chemical that the female butterfly secretes along with the egg.

EGGS Some species lay one egg at a time,

others lay eggs in small clusters, while others lays hundreds at a time.

Eggs are usually laid on the under surface of a leaf or somewhere near the host plant. For example, the Monarch butterfly lays its eggs on the bottom of the milkweed plant which its caterpillar will eat. Other locations are flower heads, and crevices in tree bark. A few (like ghost moths) lay thousands of eggs while they fly; the larva of these species usually eat grass.

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EGGSButterfly eggs come in many shapes

and colors. The shapes include spherical, oval, and pod-shaped; the colors include white, green, and yellow. The eggs have a thin, tough shell with raised ribs or pits (reticulations). At the top of each egg is a micropyle, a small pit that marks where the sperm entered the egg. While the egg is developing, air and water enter the egg through the micropyle.

EGGSThere is a yolk inside each egg that

nourished the developing larva. When it is time to hatch, the larva gnaws open the egg shell with its jaws. After hatching, most caterpillars finish eating their egg case as their first meal. After this, the plant upon which the egg was laid will be nourishment.

LARVAA caterpillar is the larval stage of

butterflies and moths. The caterpillar hatches from a tiny egg and will eventually pupate and turn into an adult butterfly or moth.

This larval stage usually lasts from two weeks to about a month. This is the main feeding stage of the butterfly. Caterpillars eat almost constantly and grow very quickly, at an astonishing rate.

PUPAThe pupa is the stage in a butterfly's

(or moth's) life when it is encased in a chrysalis and undergoing metamorphosis. It does not eat during this stage.

The pupa stage lasts from a few days to many months (some butterflies overwinter in the pupa stage, and the adult emerges in the spring).

PUPAThe pupa of a butterfly is called a

chrysalis (derived from the Greek word for gold). The chrysalis of many butterflies (like the Nymphalidae and Satyridae families) are suspended from a silk pad and abdominal hooks. Others (like like swallowtails and sulphurs) also have a silk girdle supporting their mid-section. About a day before the adult butterfly emerges, the chrysalis of many species (including the monarch) becomes transparent.

ADULTAn adult butterfly emerges full-grown

from the chrysalis, often losing reddish meconium fluid as it leaves. When the adult emerges, its wings are wrinkled, wet and deflated, but the abdomen is distended with fluid. The butterfly pumps some of this fluid into the wings through veins to inflate them. The butterfly then rests and then lets the wings dry out. The primary purpose of the adult stage is to mate and reproduce.

ADULTAdults can only eat liquid food through

their straw-like proboscis. Most butterflies only sip flower nectar, liquids from rotting fruit, mushy bird dung, and mineral-rich water from puddles (this activity is called puddling). Some butterflies (like the Zebra Longwing) sip pollen. The Harvester Butterfly sips the body fluids from woolly aphids using its proboscis. A few butterflies sip rotting flesh. A rare few lepidoptera (like the great silkmoth) cannot eat at all; they die in about a week, after mating and reproducing.