How Does A Caterpillar Become A Butterfly?

It is not widely known, that a butterfly never eats. This happens to be true of some butterflies. The very simple reason being the story of how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

A female butterfly, during his lifetime lays from one hundred to several thousand eggs. She lays the eggs very carefully near to the kind of plant that will be useful to her offspring at a later stage. If there is an only such plant in a certain area – that is where she will lay the eggs!

From the eggs hatch out tiny, wormlike grubs, called “Cater-pillar larvae”. They at once begin to feed and grow; as they grow they shed their skins several times. All the caterpillars do during this time is eat and eat because the stored food may have to last for rest of their lives, when they become butterflies! The food is stored in the shape of fat. It is used to build wings, legs, sucking tubes and so on, when the caterpillar becomes a butterfly.

The caterpillar, at a certain time feels a change, so it spins a little button of silk and clings to it. It hangs head down, sheds its caterpillar skin and appears as a pupa or Chrysalis. The Chrysalis clings to the button of silk by a sharp spine at the end of its body.

The pupa may sleep in some weeks or months. During this period of time, however, it is undergoing a change, and comes out as a full-grown insect. When it emerges from its chrysalis skin, it is a butterfly. To start with it does not do any flying and continues to sit for hours and allows for its wings to spread out and become dry and firm. It waves them back and forth slowly to make them sure to undertake the art of flying. Later it goes on its search in nectar.

This is the life story of the moth and is the same in general as of the butterfly/ The kinds of moths are many more than there are butterflies. In North America, there are about 8,000 types of moths and about 700 kinds of butterflies