Butterfly World

Butterfly World

Stages of a Butterfly

A butterfly is an insect which is notable for its life cycle. The four stages of a butterfly's lifecycle are as follows: egg, larva or caterpillar stage, pupa or chrysalis stage, and a final adult butterfly stage. As such, a butterfly's life starts out as an egg and matures into a caterpillar. The butterfly eggs are usually laid on top of plants. Each species of butterfly has its own host plant. Once the egg hatches and becomes a larva or caterpillar, the caterpillar eats the egg shell and the host plant. Caterpillars are known to eat more food in comparison to their body size than any other animal on the planet. Once they have had enough to eat and are fully grown, they move on to their pupa or chrysalis stage. They do this by anchoring onto a hard substance like a twig and form a hard outer shell.

The pupa of each butterfly depends on the species. A common predator to the pupa can be ants or wasps. If the pupa happens to be disrupted in their transformation within their shell, this future butterfly could either emerge deformed or die shortly after hatching. Each butterfly species has a different color or shape to its chrysalis or pupa. After it finished the pupa stage, a butterfly cannot fly until its wings are unfolded. A newly-emerged butterfly needs to spend some time inflating its wings with blood and letting them dry. Different species of butterflies have different size and colored wings. For example, the largest butterfly in the world is called the "Large Swallowtail."

Body Parts of a Caterpillar and Butterfly

Caterpillars have three main body parts which consist of the head, the thorax, and the abdomen. The head is the upper area and is the part of the insect that contains the brain, two eyes, and two antennae. The thorax is the middle area where the legs attach. Caterpillars have six main legs which work and the rest are fakes which don't actually walk but are dragged alongside the others. The third area of the caterpillar is the abdomen which is the bottom section of an insect that contains the heart, reproductive organs, and most of the digestive system.

The butterfly also has three main body parts. The first area is the head which contains the antennas, the eyes, and the tongue. The antennas are like a person's nose; it is where the butterfly's ability to smell comes from. The tongue is a long sticky tube in which the butterfly licks or sucks up their food. It is also known as the proboscis. The second part is the thorax; it is the middle area where the wings and the legs attach. The wing section contains four separate wings. They are not attached to each other and they do not all flap at the same time. Also the wings are covered in billions of tiny scales. There are six legs on a butterfly. The legs of the butterfly have taste buds on them so once they land on something they can tell if it's a flower with nectar to eat or not. Last but not least, the third part of the butterfly contains the abdomen where the spiracles are attached. The spiracles are the "lungs" of the butterfly. This is where the butterfly actually breathes.

The Butterfly versus the Moth

When the caterpillar transforms into a pupa, the adult structures of the insect are formed, like the wings. The pupas of different groups of insects have different names, such as chrysalis for butterflies