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Metamorphosis: The Beauty & Design of Butterflies

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egg to a butterfly in different stages of life

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The First Stage: The Egg

Butterfly Eggs on a Leaf

A butterfly starts life as a very small, round, oval or cylindrical egg. The coolest thing about butterfly eggs, especially monarch butterfly eggs, is that if you look close enough you can actually see the tiny caterpillar growing inside of it. Some butterfly eggs may be round, some oval and some may be ribbed while others may have other features. The egg shape depends on the type of butterfly that laid the egg.

Butterfly eggs are usually laid on the leaves of plants, so if you are actively searching for these very tiny eggs, you will have to take some time and examine quite a few leaves in order to find some.

The Second Stage: The Larva (Caterpillar)

Butterfly Caterpillar

When the egg finally hatches, most of you would expect for a butterfly to emerge, right? Well, not exactly. In the butterfly's life cycle, 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 very long and mostly, in this stage all they do is eat.

When the egg hatches, the caterpillar will start his work and eat the leaf they were born onto. This is really important because the mother butterfly needs to lay her eggs on the type of leaf the caterpillar will eat - each caterpillar type likes only certain types of leaves. Since they are tiny and can not travel to a new plant, the caterpillar needs to hatch on the kind of leaf 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 start eating, they instantly start growing and expanding. Their exoskeleton (skin) does not stretch or grow, so they grow by "molting" (sheding the outgrown skin) several times while it grows.

The Third Stage: Pupa (Chrysalis)

Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis

The pupa stage is one of the coolest stages of a butterfly's life. As soon as a caterpillar is done growing and they have reached their full length/weight, they form themselves into a pupa, also known as a chrysalis. From the outside of the pupa, it looks as if the caterpillar may just be resting, but the inside is where all of the action is. Inside of the pupa, the caterpillar is rapidly changing

The Fourth Stage: Adult Butterfly

Butterfly Emerging from a Chrysalis

Finally, when the caterpillar has done all of its forming and changing inside the pupa, if you are lucky, you will get to see an adult butterfly emerge. When the butterfly first emerges from the chrysalis, both of the wings are going to be soft and folded against its body. This is because the butterfly had to fit all its new parts inside of the pupa.

When in the fourth and final stage of their lives, adult butterflies are constantly on the look out to reproduce and when a female lays their eggs on some leaves, the butterfly life cycle will start all over.

How Can You See The Butterfly Life Cycle?

These kids got to observe live Painted Lady caterpillars turn into Butterflies.

There are many different ways that you can catch this miracle happen right before your eyes, for instance, there are live butterfly kits that come with caterpillars so you can see this amazing transformation right in front of you!

These live butterfly kits are amazing for a science project or simply for children to learn all about the ever-changing caterpillar and the butterfly's life cycle in general. One of the greatest things about these live butterfly kits is the fact that after the butterflies hatch out of their pupas, you can observe them for a little while and then let them go!

Letting your butterflies go is not only a satisfying experience but it is one that is very important to teach your children. Children have to learn that animals do not need to be locked up and while it is okay to observe them sometimes, it is always best to let nature take its course.

Teachers can buy a live School Size Painted Lady Butterfly raising kit

Now that you have learned all about the butterfly life cycle, why don't you teach someone else? This amazing life cycle is a great lesson for anyone to learn and it is not only a lesson that involves an ever-changing insect, but it is one that we can apply to ourselves as well. For instance, when a child is feeling down on themselves, you can explain to them that not only do people change inside every day, but insects like the butterfly do too.

The butterfly life cycle is a great story to tell anyone and everyone and it is even better to observe it happen right in front of you. Live butterfly kits allow you to see for yourself the entire life cycle of this incredible creature and allows your children to learn more and more about these beautiful insects!

You can also find out about the dragonfly life cycle, frog life cycle and ladybug life cycle and more information across Learn About Nature.

Butterfly Biology Links

Butterfly Life Cycle Coloring Page
FREE butterfly life cycle coloring page for you to print out and color in!

Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle Coloring Page
FREE Monarch butterfly life cycle coloring page for you to print out and color in!

Berkeley's Anise Swallowtails
Lots of pictures of the stages of the Anise Swallowtail butterfly life cycle with emphasis on caterpillars and raising them, but many butterfly pictures as well. One of the best written and documented butterfly rearing sites out there. Also fun to read!!

Captain's European Butterfly Guide

Provides a series of pages with photos outlining the butterfly life cycle process from start to finish.

Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle Pictures
Great article with images about the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Did you know they have 4 generations a year, and that the last one migrates up to 2,500 miles?

Monarch Butterfly Biology and Migration

A gateway to news, information, activities, and resources about the biology and conservation of this fascinating insect.

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Butterfly Life Cycle - Learn About Nature

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Let's explore a butterfly life cycle in detail, including all four stages of life. All butterflies have "complete metamorphosis." To grow into an adult they go through 4 stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Each stage has a different goal - for instance, caterpillars need to eat a lot, and adults need to reproduce.

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by Deborah Heligman

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After a caterpillar comes to school in a jar, the children are captivated as it eats, grows, and eventually becomes a beautiful Painted Lady butterfly. This title features colorful illustrations from veteran illustrator Bari Weissman and lively text from National Book Award finalist and Michael L. Printz Honor winner Deborah Heiligman.

Now rebranded with a new cover look, this NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book includes web research prompts and an activity encouraging kids to identify the different types of butterflies all around them. Both text and artwork were vetted for accuracy by Dr. Louis Sorkin, Senior Scientific Assistant at the American Museum of Natural History.

This is a Level 1 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores introductory concepts for children in the primary grades and supports the Common Core Learning Standards and Next Generation Science Standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

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After a caterpillar comes to school in a jar, the children are captivated as it eats, grows, and eventually becomes a beautiful Painted Lady butterfly. This title features colorful illustrations from veteran illustrator Bari Weissman and lively text from National Book Award finalist and Michael L.

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The rain forest covers only 6 percent of the world's tropical areas, but they are home to more than half the species of animals in the world. Some of these animals go through metamorphosis, a development process with several stages before reaching their adult form.

Most invertebrates pass through metamorphosis during their life cycle, but some vertebrates, such as frogs, also go through this process before reaching adulthood.

Animals that go through metamorphosis, by definition, change their form -- the root word "meta" means change, while the word "morpho" means form. Invertebrates including insects and spiders along with amphibians such as frogs and toads, grow by transforming during their life cycle.

For insects that go through a complete metamorphosis, they mature from an egg, to a larva, to a pupa, to an adult. Other insects go through what is known as incomplete metamorphosis. Typically, the immature forms look similar to the adult form but they lack wings. When fully mature, they are winged.

Most butterfly species live in the rain forest. A mere 11,250 acres of Ecuadorian rain forest has more species (676) than all of North America. Egg, larvae or caterpillar, and pupa or chrysalis are the stages of butterfly metamorphosis, before reaching the adult form.

Rainforest butterflies include the Blue Morpho, Owl butterfly, Periander Metalmark, Crimson-banded Black, Tiger Longwing and Tropical Milkweed.

The majority of invertebrates in the rain forest are ants and termites.

More than 500 ant species were found in 15 acres of Malaysian rain forest compared with the total 700 species of ants found in North America. Ants, bees and beetles go through the same metamorphosis stages as butterflies.

However, the metamorphosis of termites is considered an incomplete process, because the animals do not go through the chrysalis stage. This is called hemimetabolism.

The Tortoise beetle, the ants of the genus Polyergus, the South American bee and the Cubitermes termites of Africa are some examples of insects that go through metamorphosis.

Similar to termites, grasshoppers and dragonflies don't go through the chrysalis stage during their development. Instead, they pass through several nymph stages, when the young animals hatch already looking like an adult and change their external skeleton during growth.

There are more than 2,000 identified species of grasshopper in the rain forest, including species of the genus Rhachicreagra. The Nietner's Shadowdamsel, the Two-spotted Threadtail, the Jungle Threadtail and the Rivulet Tiger are some dragonflies found in the Sri Lanka rain forest.

Rain forest spiders include many species of tarantulas, such as the Bird Eating Goliath, with a leg-span of 10 inches; the venomous Brazilian Wandering Spider; the white-and-black Tropica Tent-Web Spider; and various species of jumping spiders, such as the herbivorous Bagheera kiplingi, found in Mexico.

Although most species of scorpions live in dry habitats such as deserts, some species are adapted to live in the hot and humid rain forest. The mildly venomous Australian rain forest scorpion is an example. Spiders and scorpions go through an incomplete metamorphosis.

The other animals that go through metamorphosis besides insects and other invertebrates are amphibians. Frogs spend the early stages of their life cycle in the water as eggs and tadpoles. Through the metamorphosis, the exterior gills are replaced by lungs, back legs and front legs appear and the juveniles lose their tails.

In the rain forest, some frogs such as the Green and Black Dart and the Blue Dart have bright colors, which is an indication of their venom. However, some colorful species, such as the red-eyed tree frog, is not toxic to humans.

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The Rainforest Animals That Go Through Metamorphosis

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Metamorphosis is the process of developing by changing form. Rainforest animals that go through metamorphosis include insects like butterflies and amphibians such as frogs and toads. Among these things that transform as they grow, the stages in their life cycles varies by animal and species.

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"Metamorphosis (Tadpole Into a Frog)" song about frog life cycle (old version)

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Wendy Pfeffer describes the amazing metamorphosis from tiny, jellylike egg, to little fishy tadpole, to great big bullfrog. Holly Keller has created the archetypal frog pond and we see it through the seasons as the tadpoles grow legs and lungs and eventually hop onto land: bullfrogs at last. "Well-designed ink drawings washed with soft-toned watercolors stretch across the double-page spreads, showing the action above and below water level. . . .an attractive, general introduction."-BL.

1994 "Pick of the Lists" (ABA)
Best Children's Science Books, 1994 (Science Books and Films)

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Wendy Pfeffer describes the amazing metamorphosis from tiny, jellylike egg, to little fishy tadpole, to great big bullfrog. Holly Keller has created the archetypal frog pond and we see it through the seasons as the tadpoles grow legs and lungs and eventually hop onto land: bullfrogs at last.

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The process in which a tadpole turns into a frog is called metamorphosis, and it is an amazing transformation. Here we have broken metamorphosis down so you can see the stages a tadpole goes through as it develops into an adult. It is important to note that the frogs in the following pictures are not all the same species.

This is an egg mass laid by a frog. Each of those black dots is made up of a bunch of cells that will eventually grow into a tadpole. Depending on the species, these egg masses can be made up of several hundred eggs!

Within a few days, the eggs develop into tadpoles. Tadpoles live completely underwater. After a few weeks, a hormone in the tadpole's thyroid gland initiates metamorphosis.

Over about a 24 hour period, the tadpole develops into a frog. This means almost every organ has to change so the tadpole can go from living underwater to living on land as an adult frog. In this picture you can see the tadpole has started to grow hind legs.

After the hind legs have started to form, a pair of front legs will begin to develop and the tail will start to disappear. You might also notice that the tadpole has started to form a frog-like face. The tadpole's skull is made out of cartilage (the same stuff your nose and ears are made out of) but during metamorphosis, the cartilage is replaced with bone.

When the tadpole reaches the froglet stage, it is almost a full adult. At this point, the tadpole's gills have disappeared, and its lungs have enlarged. This means it is ready to leave the water and live on land. Once its tail disappears, it will become an adult frog.

This is a fully grown frog. As you have just read, frogs go through a lot to get to this phase. They even go through changes that aren't visible in these pictures. The tadpole's horny teeth, once used to tear up plants, disappear and tongue muscles develop to catch insects. The tadpole's large intestine, important for digesting algae and plants, shrinks to suit the frog's meat-eating diet.
Metamorphosis is quite a process. It is also when the frog is at its most vulnerable. Help give frogs a chance by starting a Bring Back the Wild Campaign to protect the Oregon Spotted Frog.
Sources:
http://www.tn.gov/twra/tamp/frogs.shtml
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK10035/

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Life Cycle of a Frog | Earth Rangers Wild Wire Blog

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The process in which a tadpole turns into a frog is called metamorphosis, and it is an amazing transformation. Here we have broken metamorphosis down so you can see the stages a tadpole goes through as it develops into an adult. It is important to note that the frogs in the following pictures are not all the same species.