Butterfly MetamorphosisThe insect that have beautiful wings and flutter from one flower to another is lovingly called butterfly. From the egg to chrysalis to butterfly is a wonderful transformation called butterfly metamorphosis. Read on to know more about it.

Once a man asked God for two things - a plant, which has beautiful and colorful flowers and a butterfly to add beauty to his small potted garden. However, instead of a flowering plant, God presented him with a cactus plant and a caterpillar. The man was surprised, because he had asked for one thing and God gave him something else. After many days, the cactus bloomed and in the place of the caterpillar, there was a beautiful and stunning butterfly. I am not attempting to convey a spiritual message. All I am asking you is have you wondered what had happened to the caterpillar? From where did the butterfly come?

Underline the sentence "From where did the butterfly come?", it is not a mystery. The truth is caterpillar transformed into a gorgeous and colorful butterfly. Sounds amazing, is it not? I believe you are curious to know about this wonderful butterfly metamorphosis. Let me take you through the different stages of metamorphosis. The process is really amazing. For the budding entomologist, I believe this article would give a brief and interesting insight into butterfly metamorphosis.

How Do You Define Metamorphosis

Before we dwell into the topic, I would want you to understand what metamorphosis means. Metamorphosis is a transformation or you can say different stages of development of each and every insect before it becomes an adult. Here we are talking about butterfly metamorphosis. There are different kinds of butterflies like Monarch, Blue Morpho, Queen Alexandra’s Birdwing, Viceroy, Ulysses and so on. Be it any variety, all these beautiful and gorgeous creatures have a life cycle. The developmental stages or the metamorphosis of a butterfly takes place in four stages.

The Four Stages of Butterfly Metamorphosis

Monarch butterfly is the most common and popular butterfly. This butterfly is considered to be one of the most beautiful and supreme among other species of butterflies. The reason is simple, they have longer life, they have the ability to travel across continents and their pupa is the best looking one compared to any other butterfly. It becomes a beautiful butterfly only after passing through different phases of metamorphosis. The four stages/phases of metamorphosis are listed below.

Egg - The First Stage of Butterfly Metamorphosis

One thing worth mentioning here is that, female butterflies are very choosy about the plants they would want to lay their eggs on. The reason is that the caterpillar has to survive by munching away the leaves of this plant. For instance, the female Monarch butterfly would prefer to lay eggs only on milkweed plants. This is because the caterpillars of this variety of butterflies can feed only on this plant. Similarly, each variety of butterflies has its preference when it comes to laying it egg. Laying of eggs commences the first phase of butterfly

metamorphosis. The underside of the leaves is where you find the butterfly eggs. These are white in color and are very small. It takes almost a week for the eggs to hatch. The larva develops inside the egg and nourishes on the yolk of the egg. Finally, they make a small hole in the egg and emerges on the leaf. Here the second stage begins.

Larva - The Second Stage of Butterfly Metamorphosis

The larva of the butterfly is called caterpillar. This is the second phase of the metamorphosis. Initially the caterpillars are very small and hardly weigh 0.55milligrams. The length of the caterpillar is merely 0.1 inch. However, the caterpillar grows fast feeding on the leaves. In two weeks they become an adult caterpillar. Now the size of the caterpillar is around 2 inches. This is a very interesting stage. The adult caterpillar has eight pairs of legs. As the caterpillar grows longer it outgrows its skin. It sheds the skin. This process is called as molting. In this stage of butterfly metamorphosis, caterpillar molts its skin around five to six times. The fully-grown adult caterpillar, starts crawling away from the plant it was feeding on and keeps crawling till it finds a safe haven to pupate. Once the caterpillar finds a place to pupate. It makes a silk-like mat on the surface and hangs upside down. The last pair of legs is attached to the silk-like mat. It hangs for one whole day like this and takes the shape of the alphabet "J". Caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time before it moves into the next stage of butterfly metamorphosis. Weight

Pupa - The Third Stage of Butterfly Metamorphosis

When the larva enters the third phase, it has already shed its eight pairs of legs and the head capsule, which had housed six eye lenses. The skin of the caterpillar is shed for the final time and the casing takes the color of jade. This casing is called chrysalis. Though initially chrysalis is soft gradually within an hour it hardens to form a protective shell. The pupate of a butterfly is otherwise known as chrysalis. Within the chrysalis the caterpillar slowly turns into a butterfly. There is a transformation-taking place within the pupa. The body parts of the caterpillar disintegrate to form the body parts of the butterfly. The transformation period of chrysalis to butterfly takes around 10 to 15 days.

Adult Butterfly - The Last and The Final Stage of Butterfly Metamorphosis

The hardened chrysalis cracks and the butterfly emerges from it. The wings of the butterfly are small and wet. It clings onto the shell of the chrysalis. At this juncture, a life-saving fluid known as hemolymph is pumped into the body of the butterfly. Hemolymph spreads slowly throughout the body and the wings. This helps in enlarging the wings and the body of the butterfly. Remember that the wings are wet and the butterfly is unable to fly. However, within an hour the wings become dry and the butterfly is ready to fly.

To sum up, the butterfly metamorphosis, butterflies are one of the beautiful creations among the insects. Children and adults enjoy their beauty equally. The female butterfly is ready to mate within four to five days after it emerges from chrysalis. Butterfly metamorphosis is a vicious cycle and the life of the butterfly goes on and on.

1. Danaus ismare (Danainae) Ismare Tiger2. Euploea albicosta (Danainae) Biak Dark Crow3. Euploea caespes (Danainae) Murphy's Crow4. Euploea configurata (Danainae) Sulawesi Striped Blue Crow

5. Euploea cordelia (Danainae) Cordelia's Crow6. Euploea dentiplaga (Danainae) Seram Crow7. Euploea eleusina (Danainae) 8. Euploea eupator (Danainae) Sulawesi Pied Crow9. Euploea gamelia (Danainae) Javan Crow10. Euploea hewitsonii (Danainae) 11. Euploea latifasciata (Danainae) Weymer's Crow12. Euploea magou (Danainae) Magou13. Euploea martinii (Danainae) Sumatran Crow14. Euploea morosa (Danainae) 15. Euploea redtenbacheri (Danainae) 16. Euploea tripunctata (Danainae) Biak Threespot Crow17. Euploea westwoodii (Danainae) 18. Idea blanchardii (Danainae) 19. Idea durvillei (Danainae) 20. Idea idea (Danainae) 21. Idea tambusisiana (Danainae) Bedford-russell's Tree-nymph22. Ideopsis hewitsonii (Danainae) Hewitson's Small Tree-nymph23. Ideopsis klassika (Danainae) Seram Small Tree-nymph24. Ideopsis oberthurii (Danainae) 25. Ideopsis vitrea (Danainae) 26. Parantica albata (Danainae) Zinken's Tiger27. Parantica cleona (Danainae) 28. Parantica dabrerai (Danainae) D'Abrera's Tiger29. Parantica hypowattan (Danainae) Morishita's Tiger30. Parantica kuekenthali (Danainae) Kuekenthal's Yellow Tiger31. Parantica marcia (Danainae) Biak Tiger32. Parantica menadensis (Danainae) Manado Yellow Tiger33. Parantica philo (Danainae) Sumbawa Tiger34. Parantica pseudomelaneus (Danainae) Javan Tiger35. Parantica sulewattan (Danainae) Bonthain Tiger36. Parantica tityoides (Danainae) Sumatran Chocolate Tiger37. Parantica toxopei (Danainae) Toxopeus' Yellow Tiger38. Parantica wegneri (Danainae) Flores Tiger39. Atrophaneura dixoni (Papilionidae) 40. Atrophaneura hageni (Papilionidae) 41. Atrophaneura kuehni (Papilionidae) 42. Atrophaneura luchti (Papilionidae) 43. Atrophaneura orean (Papilionidae) 44. Atrophaneura palu (Papilionidae) Palu Swallowtail45. Atrophaneura polyphontes (Papilionidae) 46. Atrophaneura priapus (Papilionidae) Priapus Batwing47. Graphium androcles (Papilionidae) 48. Graphium deucalion (Papilionidae) 49. Graphium dorcas (Papilionidae) 50. Graphium encelades (Papilionidae) 51. Graphium meyeri (Papilionidae) 52. Graphium milon (Papilionidae) 53. Graphium monticolum (Papilionidae) 54. Graphium rhesus (Papilionidae)

55. Graphium stresemanni (Papilionidae) 56. Graphium sumatranum (Papilionidae) 57. Ornithoptera aesacus (Papilionidae) Golden Birdwing58. Ornithoptera croesus (Papilionidae) Wallace's Golden Birdwing59. Ornithoptera rothschildi (Papilionidae) Rothschilds's Birdwing60. Ornithoptera tithonus (Papilionidae) Tithonus Birdwing 61. Papilio ascalaphus (Papilionidae) 62. Papilio blumei (Papilionidae) 63. Papilio deiphobus (Papilionidae) 64. Papilio diophantes (Papilionidae) 65. Papilio forbesi (Papilionidae) 66. Papilio gambrisius (Papilionidae) 67. Papilio gigon (Papilionidae) 68. Papilio heringi (Papilionidae) 69. Papilio hipponous (Papilionidae) 70. Papilio inopinatus (Papilionidae) 71. Papilio jordani (Papilionidae) Jordan's Swallowtail 72. Papilio lampsacus (Papilionidae) 73. Papilio lorquinianus (Papilionidae) Sea Green Swallowtail74. Papilio neumoegeni (Papilionidae) 75. Papilio peranthus (Papilionidae) 76. Papilio sataspes (Papilionidae) 77. Papilio tydeus (Papilionidae) 78. Papilio veiovis (Papilionidae) 79. Troides criton (Papilionidae) Criton Birdwing80. Troides dohertyi (Papilionidae) Talaud Black Birdwing81. Troides haliphron (Papilionidae) Haliphron Birdwing82. Troides hypolitus (Papilionidae) Rippon's Birdwing83. Troides prattorum (Papilionidae) Buru Opalescent Birdwing84. Troides riedeli (Papilionidae) Riedel's Birdwing85. Troides staudingeri (Papilionidae) 86. Troides vandepolli (Papilionidae) Van de Poll's Birdwing