Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Below is a life-cycle "tree" for the butterfly. Position the stage you are interested in in the middle of your screen, then Mouseover the image to view enlargements and information describing it.

Life cycle of the butterfly

The adult stage:
Duration: about 2 weeks.
Purpose: Reproduction.

The egg stage:
Location: on the plant, mostly on leaves.
Duration: some days.

The caterpillar stage:
Location: on the plant.
Duration: from several weeks up to several months.
Purpose: feeding and growing.

The chrysalis stage:
Duration: from 5 days up to several months.
Purpose: transformation.

General information:

There are world wide about 170'000 species within the lepidoptera family, which means "scaly wings" and includes butterflies and moths.

Defense tactics:

Camouflage: the butterfly in any stage will try to merge into the background by adapting the colour and movement of his surrounding. Examples are many chrysalises and butterflies like the leafwings. Signal colours are a language in the insect world: the butterfly is brightly coloured and stands out from his surrounding. He shows that he is distasteful or poisonous by using orange-yellow and black. Examples are the monarch, who feeds on a poisonous plant and a bee with her yellow and black abdomen. She can sting.