Life Cycle of a butterfly

1. Egg

It starts when a female butterfly lays her eggs, usually on leaves or stems of plants. Eggs can be laid from spring, summer or fall. This depends on the species of butterfly. Females lay a oot of eggs at once so that at least some of them survive.

tiny eggs

egg

egg is hatching

-

Life cycle of a butterfly

2. Caterpillar

When the egg hatches, the caterpillar will start his work and eat the leaves that they where born into. At this stage the caterpillars need to eat and eat so they can grow quickly. When a caterpillar is born, they are extremly small. When they start eating they start growing and expanding. This stage is also called Larva.

caterpillar

caterpillars are eating, and eating

the caterpillar is preparing for the 3rd stage to become a cocoon.

Life cycle of a butterfly

3. Cocoon

The cocoon stage is one of the coolest stages of a butterfly lifes. As soon as a caterpillar is done growing they end into a coccon. Most of them stay between five to twenty one days. The caterpillar stops eating and hangs upside down. Acocoon is made out of silk that a moth caterpillar spins around itself. Within its protective casing the caterpillar radically transforms its body, eventually emerging into a butterfly.

cocoon

diferent tipes of cocoon

4. Butterfly

In this stage it is an adult. They have long legs, long antennae, and compound eyes.They can also fly by using their large and colorful wings. When it became a butterfly they can't grow. The adult female can easily fly from place to place to find the right plant for its eggs. This is very important because caterpillar can't travel far. Most adult butterflies live only one or two week, but some species hibernate during the winter and may live several months.