A Guide to the Butterfly Life Cycle

by AMNH on Oct 4, 2017 2:50 pm

The winged insects of the order Lepidoptera, including both butterflies and moths, are famous for the dramatic transformation—called metamorphosis—that takes place between the larval stage and adulthood.

[MUSIC]

[The American Museum of Natural History logo appears, with animated butterflies flying all around it.]

NARRATOR: How do you make a butterfly?

[Text appears: How do you make a butterfly? A pattern of leaves slides onto the screen.]

[RUSTLING]

NARRATOR: First, a butterfly lays an egg on a plant.

[A butterfly lands on the leaves and then flies away, leaving an egg behind. Text appears at the top of the screen: “1. Lay an egg.”]

NARRATOR: A caterpillar hatches out of it, and gets busy eating.

[Text at the top of the screen changes to “2. Hatch.” A tiny caterpillar munches its way out of the egg [CRUNCHING SOUND] and starts crawling along the leaves. Behind it, holes appear in the leaves. Text at the top of the screen changes to “3. Eat, molt, repeat.”]

NARRATOR: As it eats, it grows and molts out of its skin to get even bigger,

[The caterpillar grows and then its skin slides off it, revealing a more brightly colored caterpillar beneath it. More holes appear in the leaves behind it.]

NARRATOR: And repeats this until it is a fully-grown caterpillar.

[The caterpillar sheds its skin a second time, and it is now much much larger than when it hatched out of the egg.]

NARRATOR: It attaches itself to a plant-

[The caterpillar crawls along a branch and then flips to hang from the underside of the branch from its back end.]

NARRATOR: and sheds its skin one last time to reveal its chrysalis.

[The caterpillar sheds its skin again and reveals an oblong green chrysalis beneath. Text at the top of the screen changes to “4. Pupate”.]

NARRATOR: Inside, the tissues that made up the caterpillar rearrange,

[Three circular graphics spiral out from behind the chrysalis. One contains a close-up of a caterpillar face, one contains a close-up of a caterpillar leg, and one contains a close-up of the caterpillar body. Text at the top of the screen changes to “5. Form a butterfly”.]

NARRATOR: to form a head and body, six legs, and four wings.

[The images inside the circles morph into a butterfly head, legs, and wings. The image spiral back behind the chrysalis.]

NARRATOR: Then, when its own genes and the climate indicate the time is right,

[A moon rises and falls, as if night and day are passing quickly. The chrysalis gets darker in color and starts to wiggle.]

[POP]

NARRATOR: out pops the butterfly.

[Text at the top of the screen changes to “6. Emerge!” A butterfly with orange and black wings pops out of the bottom of the chrysalis, now nearly transparent, and rests on the outside of the chrysalis. Its wings go from crumpled to flat.]

[A butterfly egg appears on screen. It shifts counter clockwise and is replaced by a caterpillar.]

NARRATOR: This entire cycle, from egg to caterpillar, to chrysalis to butterfly,

[The caterpillar shifts as the screen zooms out to reveal a circle, with the four stages (egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and butterfly) circling counter clockwise.]

NARRATOR: Is known as metamorphosis, because the animal goes through striking, distinct, life stages.

[TYPING]

[Text appears over the rotating cycle: “Metamorphosis. Noun: the process of transformation in distinct stages.” The text fades and the butterfly on screen flies offscreen.]

NARRATOR: Now our butterfly will find a mate

[It flies into the sky where there is another butterfly flying.]

NARRATOR: so it can start the butterfly life cycle all over again.

[The butterfly flies onto a plant, and flies offscreen, leaving a butterfly egg behind. The plant lowers off screen and butterflies fly all around.]

NARRATOR: See live butterflies, moths, and chrysalises

[Text appears: “See live butterflies, moths, and chrysalises”. It disappears offscreen.]

NARRATOR: in the American Museum of Natural History’s Butterfly Conservatory, now in its 20th year.

[The American Museum of Natural History logo appears, and beneath it text appears: “Butterfly Conservatory. www.amnh.org/butterflies”]

[Credits roll.

Generous support for The Butterfly Conservatory has been provided by the Eileen P. Bernard Exhibition Fund.

Video
AMNH / L. Stevens

Illustration
AMNH / M. Fearon

Sound Effects
AMNH / L. Stevens
InspectorJ

Music
“Bug Talk” by Will Collier (BMI) / Warner/Chappell Production Music

A butterfly larva first emerges from its egg as a caterpillar, chewing its way out of its protective shell. It keeps munching large quantities of leaves, growing and shedding its skin as it outgrows it.

Once it reaches full size, the caterpillar finds a good place to anchor itself, then molts one last time to reveal a chrysalis, or pupa. It’s inside the chrysalis where the most dramatic transformation takes place.

Butterfly pupae hang from a ledge in various stages of metamorphosis.

In this stage, which takes anywhere from two weeks to several months, the insect’s tissues rearrange to form the features of an adult butterfly, including wings and antennae.

Detail of a butterfly with wings folded together, sitting on a leaf.

Finally, the adult butterfly breaks through its chrysalis case fully-formed, though its wings are generally wet and scrunched. Once the butterfly has a chance to dry and expand its shriveled wings by pumping them full of blood, it’s off to find a mate—and to begin the life cycle anew.

To see more than 500 live butterflies—and to examine chrysalises up close—visit The Butterfly Conservatory, opening Saturday, October 7.