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Life Cycle
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Life Cycle

Complete Metamorphosis has four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Insects such as beetles, flies, ants, wasps and butterflies go through complete metamorphosis.

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Since most adult butterflies only live about two weeks the female mates the day she is born. The courtship ritual is a flurry of wings as the male entices the female to mate.

Moths depend on pheromones to find each other on a dark night. The pheromone or perfume is released from the female's abdomen. The male smells this aroma with his antennae. Some males can smell a female from up to 3 miles away. In butterflies a combination of smell and color attract mates. 

Males and females eventually join abdomens to mate. Some stay together for several hours. When they separate the female is ready to lay her eggs on a host plant that the larvae will feed on. Larvae or caterpillars have voracious appetites and a single larva can eat a whole leaf in a single day. Larvae can take from 10 days to two months to become big enough to enter the pupa stage. Inside the pupa the larva slowly transforms into an adult butterfly. This can take from eight days to several months depending on the species of the butterfly and the time of the year.

Incomplete Metamorphosis has three stages: eggs, nymphs, adults. Nymphs are like baby adults without wings. Insects such as dragonflies, grasshoppers, leaf hoppers, cockroaches and true bugs go through incomplete metamorphosis.

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