A butterfly is an insect with colored wings, 6 legs, compound eyes & antennae at the top. The sensory hairs cover their body. They feed on plant nectar. A life cycle is a series of events that changes the form of an organism. The process of transformation of the butterfly is called Metamorphosis. The life cycle of butterflies has 4 stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (imago).
Egg
The female adult butterfly lays eggs on plant leaves. They lay a lot of very small eggs at once so that at least a few of them survive. By day 7, small creatures develop from the eggs.
Caterpillar
Caterpillar is the larva of a butterfly. The caterpillar comes out of the egg and begins to eat the leaves. The caterpillar splits and sheds its skin as it grows. By day 13, it is fully grown and fits in the new skin.
Pupa
As the caterpillar grows fully, it becomes a pupa. The pupa can be seen hanging in a branch, hidden in the leaves, or buried underground. The special cells present in the larva grow rapidly and form the legs, wings, eyes, and other parts of the adult butterfly.
Adult
The adult butterflies are fully grown with their large and colorful wings. It lives only for one or two weeks. Female adult butterflies mate and lay their eggs on the right plants to begin the butterfly life cycle all over again.
The life cycle of a butterfly is well explained by Mounica Reddy ma’am. This wonderful video on the lifecycle of a butterfly made with the help of TutAR provides a different sense of learning which is better than the physical classroom.
