life cycle of the butterfly

A monarch begins her life as an egg stuck underneath a milkweed leaf. The worm (a larva) grows inside the egg. When ready, the larva chews a hole in the outside of its egg, and crawls through the hollow until he can enter the world of outside. After a few minutes, the larva eats for the first time the remains of her egg. Female monarchs leave between one and three eggs on the underside of milkweed leaves. This process is repeated until the female has left hundreds of eggs. |
After eating its egg, the larva begins to eat milkweed leaves. Asclepia is the only plant that a monarch larva can eat. The larva eats and grows, grows and eats. She grows up so much that it can't fit on your old skin, almost when like you grow so much that you do not fit in your old clothes. In order to grow so much, the larva has to shed its skin. Old skin it breaks open, exposing the new skin under it. The larva crawls on the old skin, which is already too small. After breaking free, the larva usually eat their old skin before eating more milkweed leaves.
After shedding their skins, monarch larvae continue to grow, and they have to shed four more times. The last time they move is very different than the others. The larva crawls from its milkweed, and looks for a suitable place. Some larvae travel more than others. When the larva has found the appropriate place, it begins to weave a silk mesh with a "button" in the center. Once finished, the larva grabs the silk with its legs, and hangs upside down. The front of your body is curved into a "J" shape.
When it has formed its "J", the larva molts for the last time. The skin is parted on the back of its head, and the larva crawls while hanging upside down, to shed its old skin. The last molt is the most difficult, because the larva has to leave its old skin and still hang on its "button". Once the larva incorporates a hook that penetrates the "button" on the rear side of the larva, it can remove the remaining skin.
When the remaining skin falls off, the larva pupates. It has no eyes, no antennae. He has no legs, and he cannot move. All the major changes in body shape, size, and arrangement take place when it is a pupa. In monarchs, this stage can last as long as a week. Upon completion, an adult butterfly emerges from the chrysalis.
An emerging butterfly waits two to three hours before it can fly. New wings are small and wrinkled, so it pumps liquid through its wing veins to make them bigger. Afterward, the monarch has to wait until a little air can replace some of the liquid. Up to this point, the monarch cannot fly, and her wings are very easily damaged. After the wings have hardened, the butterfly flies until it finds its first meal. From this point on, the monarch takes all of her food. The butterfly will visit various types of flowers to find its food in the form of nectar.

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	Created by Fátima Sophia Camposeco Osorio about 3 years ago