Butterfly Life Cycle – The Caterpillar
The caterpillar is just one of the four stages in the life cycle of a butterfly. This article will introduce you to the caterpillar life cycle stage and some interesting facts about caterpillars. But first, let’s look at the full life cycle of a butterfly to put things in perspective.
Butterfly Life Cycle – Egg: Adult butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves of their host plant. Each species of butterfly has certain plants that its caterpillars must eat in order to live and grow. Some butterfly species are very specific to one or two plants, while others may eat a family of plants. Butterfly eggs are generally small (about the size of the head of a pin) and generally hatch in about 3-7 days.
Butterfly Life Cycle – Caterpillar: The caterpillar hatches from the egg and normally the first thing it does is eat the eggshell. After that, it will start consuming the host plant. The caterpillar will spend the next few weeks eating and growing, as that is its main goal.
Butterfly Life Cycle – Chrysalis: This stage is often called a cocoon, but usually a cocoon is the pupal stage of a moth, while a chrysalis is the pupal stage of a butterfly. At this point the caterpillar has made its final molt into a pupa and in about 1-2 weeks an adult butterfly will emerge.
Butterfly Life Cycle – Adult Butterfly: The adult butterfly will spend its time eating nectar and mating/laying eggs. Many butterflies only live for about 2 weeks, however some species, such as monarchs, spend the winter migrating south and will therefore live for many months.
The Caterpillar:
Caterpillars are true eating machines. Before they pupate, their body mass will increase thousands of times. With all this rapid growth, they end up molting multiple times before their final chrysalis molt. They grow their new exoskeleton under their current skin, and when the time comes, they separate the old skin. Many times they will eat the old skin before going back to chewing leaves.
Caterpillars will change their appearance sometimes dramatically between their molts. An example is the black swallowtail caterpillar. When he is very young he is black with a white saddle. By the time she is ready to pupate, she has turned into a beautiful mix of stripes and dots with colors of yellow, white, black, and green. That can make identification difficult since their appearance depends on their age.
Caterpillar identification isn’t really that difficult if you know what plant they are eating. If you can identify the plant, it will be much easier to identify the caterpillar, as they are very particular about their own host plant. Just google “plant name” plus “caterpillar” or “host plant” and there’s a good chance you’ll find the species of butterfly or moth the caterpillar belongs to.
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