Apr 23 2010
Butterfly’s Life Cycle
A butterfly’s life cycle is a wondrous thing to see. It is one of the most fascinating, nearly magical things you can experience as a gardener.
The butterfly’s life cycle begins when a butterfly finds a host plant to lay her eggs on. It has to be the right kind of plant or the caterpillar will not mature correctly. Some butterflies lay their eggs in groups and others will just lay a single egg. The butterfly eggs are small and very hard to see. They usually hatch out in a week or so.
The next stage of the butterfly’s life cycle begins once the eggs have hatched out. The caterpillars begin eating the host plant; they start out small, but in a short time the caterpillars have doubled and tripled in size. The caterpillars have to shed their skin in order to grow larger. They will do this several times during this stage of their life cycle.When they have done this four or five times they will form a chrysalis or cocoon.
This stage of a butterfly’s life cycle is where the magic begins; while the caterpillar is inside of the chrysalis, it will change it’s form from a lowly caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. This usually takes about two weeks, but some butterfies will remain in their chrysalis all winter and only emerge in the spring.
In the final stage of a butterfly’s life cycle the newly formed butterfly breaks open it’s chrysalis and finds a sunny place to rest while it’s wings dry and harden. Then it flys off in search of the flower nectar that they use for food, and it will soon lay its own eggs for the next generation of butterflies.
The butterfly’s life cycle has always seemed so mystical and magical to me. The way a caterpillar can change from something that crawls on a plant into such a beautiful, graceful creature that flys through the air is truly one of nature’s miracles.
Related butterfly garden posts:
- Butterfly Caterpillars The butterfly caterpillars stage is a very important one in...
- The Life Cycle of Butterflies The life cycle of a butterfly is such a wondrous...
- Raising Butterflies From Caterpillars There are few things more interesting and intriguing to a...
- Create a Butterfly Habitat It is an easy thing to create a butterfly habitat....
- Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are found all across the United States...
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