From Caterpillar to Butterfly'Bug' has grown up now and has gone through the biggest change in his life. He formed a chrysalis as a pupa and inside his chrysalis he changed is body to become a butterfly. After several weeks going through this big change, 'Bug' has now become 'Crystal' the butterfly and she is ready to emerge from her chrysalis out into the world and enjoy life as a beautifully majestic butterfly.
Watch the video below of a butterfly emerging from her chrysalis and spreading her new wings. Monarch Emerging II by Frederic Knapp is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Unported License. A butterfly will spend most of it's life flying from flower to flower feeding on its rich nutricious nectar and when it is not feeding it will begin to look for a mate. The bright colourful wings and the elegent flight will help a butterfly atract a mate so they may lay new eggs to grow new caterpillars. It is commonly thought that a butterfly will only live for a day, this is in fact a misconception and butterflies can live from a week to nearly a year. Watch the two videos below of butterflies feeding and butterflies in flight as they try to mate. |
Monarch Butterfly newly emerged by Patty O'Hearn Kickham is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Unported License. Life as butterfly'Crystal' the butterfly is very different to 'Bug' the caterpillar. The most obvious difference is that 'Crystal' has wings and can therefore fly. If you watch a butterfly fly you will notice they have a graceful fluttering flight. A butterfly has two pairs of wings with a scaly and often colourful pattern on them. When they are not in flight their wings are usually folded over its back.
If you look closely you will often see what appears to be large eyes on the wings. These are not really eyes, they are a form of defense for the butterfly from predators. These wing eyes may be there to make the butterfly look larger and scarier than she actually is, or it may trick predators into thinking her wings are actually her head. Whatever their purpose may be, the also look very pretty and as a result butterfly watching and collecting is now a popular hobby. The head of the butterfly is also quit different from a caterpillar. They have two very large eyes, mouth parts and antenna. When butterfly changes from a caterpillar in it's pupa stage, it looses the cutting parts of its mouth that is used to eat leaves. A butterfly does not eat leaves anymore instead they use long tubes from their mouth to suck up nectar from flowers. Bees also enjoy nectar from flowers and they use it to produce the honey that we love to eat. On the top of the head you will see two long antenna sticking out from the head. These antenna help keep the butterfly balanced and they also use them for smell because butterflies do not have a nose like us. Butterfly Feeding 2 by Sharon Mollerus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Unported License. |
Butterfly Feeding by Sherwood411 is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Unported License.
Music: O Meu Coração Pára de Bater by Emerson Antoniacomi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Crunching Munching Caterpillar - A butterfly's life by Deborah Judge is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Ireland License.