How Does a Caterpillar Become a Butterfly?
It may be hard to believe that a beautiful creature like a butterfly was once an ugly, wormlike creature like a caterpillar, but this is exactly how the colorful, graceful butterfly’s life cycle works. There are four stages in a butterfly’s life. The process of going from one stage to another is called metamorphosis. The first s
Have you ever heard people say that a butterfly never eats? This happens to be true of some butterfliesand the reason lies in the story of how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. During her life, a female butterfly lays from 100 to several thousand eggs. She is very careful to lay these eggs near the kind of plant that will be useful to her offspring later. If there is only one such plant in a certain areathats where shell lay the eggs! From these eggs hatch out tiny, wormlike grubs, called caterpillar larvae. They begin at once to feed and grow, and as they grow they shed their skins several times. All the caterpillars do during this time is eat and eatbecause the food they store away now may have to last them for the rest of their lives when they become butterflies! The food is stored as fat, and is used to build up wings, legs, sucking tubes, and so on, when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.
by Mya Kagan (whyzz writer) >> more about the author Have you ever looked at a squirmy caterpillar and wondered how it ever managed to grow into a graceful, winged butterfly?? Believe it or not, but caterpillars are like baby butterflies! All butterflies lay their eggs on plants, knowing that the tiny caterpillars who hatch will be very hungry and ready to eat! Caterpillars spend most of their time eating, in preparation for all of the growing they will do before they turn into butterflies! The little caterpillars also spend a lot of time shedding their skin (at least four times!) before they finally wrap themselves into a special cocoon-like home, where they do lots of changing — when the little critter leaves, he or she has turned into a butterfly! Since the newly-formed wings need to dry, the butterfly doesn’t start flying right away. But after a few hours, the beautiful new wings are ready to go, and the butterfly begins his or her life in the air! And do you know what other creat
