A butterfly begins life as a very small egg, round, oval or cylindrical. The coolest thing about butterfly eggs, especially monarch butterfly eggs, is that if you look closely enough you can actually see the small caterpillar growing inside it. Some butterfly eggs may be round, some oval and some may be grooved, while others may have other characteristics. The shape of the egg depends on the type of butterfly that the egg laid.
Butterfly eggs are usually put on the leaves of plants, so if you are actively looking for these very small eggs, you will need to take some time and examine a few leaves in order to find some.
The Second Stage: The Larva (Caterpillar)
When the egg finally hatch, most of you would expect a butterfly to emerge, right? Well, not exactly. In the life cycle of the butterfly, there are four stages and this is only the second stage. Butterfly larvae are actually what we call caterpillars. Caterpillars do not stay in this stage for a long time and above all, at this stage all they do is eat.
When the egg hatch, the caterpillar begins its work and eats the leaf on which it was born. This is really important because the mother butterfly needs to lay its eggs on the type of leaf that the caterpillar will eat - each type of caterpillar only likes certain types of leaves. Since they are tiny and can not travel to a new plant, the caterpillar needs to hatch on the type of leaf that it wants to eat.
Caterpillars need to eat and eat so they can grow quickly. When a caterpillar is born, they are extremely small. When they begin to eat, they immediately begin to grow and expand. Their exoskeleton (skin) does not stretch or grow, so they grow by "muda" (shedding the extenuated skin) several times as it grows.
The Third Stage: Pupa (Chrysalis)
The pupa stage is one of the coolest stages in the life of a butterfly. As soon as a caterpillar grows and has reached its full length / weight, it forms in a pupa, also known as a chrysalis. From the outside of the pupa, it seems that the caterpillar may be resting, but the inside is where all the action is. Inside the pupa, the caterpillar is changing rapidly.
Now, as most people know, caterpillars are short, plump and have no wings at all. Inside the chrysalis the old parts of the caterpillar's body are undergoing a remarkable transformation, called "metamorphosis", to become the beautiful parts that make up the butterfly that will arise. The tissues, limbs and organs of a caterpillar have been changed by the time the pupa is finished and is now ready for the final stage of the life cycle of a butterfly.
The Fourth Stage: Adult Butterfly
Finally, when the caterpillar has done all its training and change inside the pupa, if you are lucky, you will see an adult butterfly emerging. When the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis, both wings will be soft and bent against your body. This is because the butterfly had to fit all of its new pieces into the pupa.
As soon as the butterfly has rested after exiting the chrysalis, let the blood pump on the wings in order to get it to work and flutter - then get to fly. Generally within a period of three or four hours, the butterfly will dominate the flight and will look for a companion to reproduce.
When in the fourth and final stage of their lives, adult butterflies are constantly on the lookout for reproduction and when a female lays her eggs on some leaves, the butterfly life cycle will start all over.