Rocket finds a striped caterpillar munching a leaf by the fence.
"A baby butterfly!" he says. "But it looks nothing like a butterfly. No wings. No colors."
Raven leans in without touching. "What do you notice about how much it eats?"
"It never stops," says Rocket.
Nova glows softly. "It is saving up," she hints. "Something big is about to happen."
A butterfly's life cycle has four stages. Each one looks completely different.
It starts as a tiny egg, usually laid on a leaf.
Out of the egg comes a larva. A butterfly larva is a caterpillar.
The caterpillar eats and eats. It grows and sheds its skin several times.
Then the caterpillar becomes a pupa. A butterfly pupa is called a chrysalis.
Inside the pupa, the insect's body changes completely.
When the pupa opens, an adult butterfly comes out. It has wings now.
The adult lays eggs, and the cycle starts again.
This complete change of body shape is called metamorphosis.
Not every insect has a pupa stage.
A grasshopper has three stages: egg, nymph and adult.
A nymph looks like a tiny adult without full wings.
It eats, grows and sheds its skin. Its wings get bigger each time.
After the last shed, it is a full adult with working wings.
| Insect | Stages | Big change? |
|---|---|---|
| butterfly | egg, larva, pupa, adult | yes, a total change of shape |
| grasshopper | egg, nymph, adult | no, the nymph looks like a small adult |
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| A caterpillar is the larva of a butterfly. | ? |
| A grasshopper has a pupa stage. | ? |
| A caterpillar sheds its skin as it grows. | ? |
| A butterfly egg hatches into a tiny butterfly with wings. | ? |
What a change, explorer! Tomorrow we start with a seed and end with a flower.