A butterfly starts life a caterpillar

Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippu): Danaus plexippus in Greek means “sleepy transformation.” The name evokes the species’ ability to hibernate and metamorphize. Kingdom: | Animalia Phylum: | Arthropoda Class: | Insecta Order: | Lepidoptera Genus: | Danaus Species: | plexippu Monarch butterflies are one of the most recognizable species of butterflies in North America. They are widely known for their incredible migratory pattern. They travel between 1,200 and 2,800 miles or more to their overwintering spots in Mexico and Southern California from the northern United States and Canada. Once there, the butterflies hibernate in the mountain forests, where a less extreme climate provides them a better chance to survive. Size and Weight: A monarch butterfly typically weighs less than half a gram. Its wingspan is about 4 inches. The male butterflies are typically larger than the females. Appearance: Monarch butterflies are well-known for their appearance. Adult monarch butterflies possess two pairs of brilliant orange-red wings, featuring black veins and white spots along the edges. The males possess distinguishing black dots along the veins of their wings. Their orange color alerts predators to stay away. As caterpillars, Monarchs are striped with yellow, black and white bands. Monarch caterpillars have a set of antennae-like tentacles at each end of their body. They reach about two inches in length before metamorphosis. The monarch chrysalis, where the caterpillar undergoes meta...

Butterflies and moths go through a complex series of changes during the life cycle, a process called complete metamorphosis. Let’s explore the life cycle of the queen butterfly first, moth second, and then suggestions for activities at the bottom. The queen butterfly starts out life as an egg laid by the female butterfly on a milkweed plant. The moth emerges from the pupa within the cocoon first. Then it spits an special chemical on the cocoon and a hole dissolves in one end. The silkworm moth can then wiggle its way through the hole and escape. Activity 1. Create a poster of a butterfly or moth life cycle Gather: Art supplies, such as • Poster board, construction or craft paper • Crayons, markers and or colored pencils • Yarn, scissors • Glue, tape • Photographs or clip art of caterpillars, butterflies and moths Plan where each stage should go in the cycle: egg, caterpillar (larva), chrysalis or cocoon, and adult butterfly or moth. Leave room for a title at the top. Draw arrows between the stages or connect them with yarn. For a shortcut, Arizona State University's Ask-a-Biologist has a Activity 2. Raise a butterfly or moth At some point in their childhood, most budding scientists raise a caterpillar to find out what it turns out to be. Suggestions: • You might want to start with • Get all the information you need to raise Manduca sexta moths at the Arizona State University's Ask-a-Biologist • Learn the ins and outs of • Be nice to the environment and never release captiv...

The metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly is one of the most iconic transformations in nature. So what exactly happens during this complicated process? Stage 1: Egg All butterflies start as tiny eggs—each about the size of a pin—that female butterflies deposit on leaves in small clusters. Eggs typically gestate for about a week or two, at which point they hatch into butterfly larva. Stage 2: Larva Almost all insect species go through larval stages. Fly larvae, for instance, are commonly known as maggots. Butterfly larvae—more commonly known as caterpillars—are more charismatic than most of their cohorts. Caterpillars are notoriously voracious, consuming grass, leaves, and other plant material as they grow up to 1,000 times their original birth weight. While some species binge and blow up in just a few weeks, others take longer to develop. The wood-eating Carpenter Worm is actually a caterpillar that can take as long as three years to grow out of its larval state. No matter how long it takes, each caterpillar is eating to prepare for the next stage in its life cycle, when it will put those calories to use to power a startling transformation. The caterpillar, or larval stage, of an owl butterfly species. Courtesy of orestART/Flickr Stage 3: Pupa The next stage of a butterfly's life cycle takes place inside a chrysalis, the last expression of the caterpillar's exoskeleton. While it may not look like much to the naked eye, there are incredible processes occurring in this...