Animals: Common Insects

Four

A butterfly has FOUR stages in its life cycle. These are: Stage 1 - Egg, Stage 2 - Caterpillar, Stage 3 - Pupa (chrysalis), and Stage 4 - Adult Butterfly. Each stage is very different from the others. The butterfly starts as a tiny egg, grows into a caterpillar, wraps itself into a pupa, and finally becomes a beautiful butterfly.

On leaves

A female butterfly lays her eggs ON LEAVES. She does this because when the eggs hatch into caterpillars, the caterpillars need to eat leaves right away. So laying eggs on leaves is very smart — the food is already there! Mosquitoes lay eggs in water, not butterflies. Butterflies do not lay eggs in soil or on rocks.

Pupa

The stage in which the caterpillar changes into a covering is called the PUPA or chrysalis. Inside the pupa, the caterpillar slowly transforms into a butterfly. This is a resting and changing stage. It is not called a larva (that is another name for caterpillar), not an egg (that is the first stage), and not a nymph (that is a stage in other insects like grasshoppers).

It starts eating leaves

Once a caterpillar comes out of its egg, it starts EATING LEAVES right away. It is very hungry and keeps eating more and more leaves to grow bigger. During this stage, a caterpillar sheds its skin four or five times to grow new skin. Caterpillars cannot fly — only the adult butterfly can. Caterpillars do not build nests or lay eggs.