To
Butterfly Bonanza
Created
by Cari Van Handel
Here you will learn all about butterflies, especially monarchs. When you finish reading about monarchs, you can try to answer the questions found on the teacher resource link. The answers to these questions are scattered throughout this page. The following images are borrowed from BillyBear4Kids.com. Special thanks to that site.
Stages in the Monarch Life Cycle
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This egg is the first stage. It is about the size of a pencil point. A few days later, a caterpillar will push its way out of the top. |
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The caterpillar is called a larva. It eats the eggshell it just left and then starts eating milkweed leaves. It will outgrow its skin, or molt, four or five times. |
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Then the caterpillar starts the next stage. It hangs upside down in the "J" position and the skin splits. A hard, pale green case is formed. It is now called a chrysalis. The case gets dark in color, and then slowly becomes clear. |
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The monarch breaks out of the chrysalis with damp and crumpled wings. After hanging upside down for a few hours, the wings dry and fill with blood. The monarch now can fly. |
To
learn about butterfly anatomy, habitat, and diet, click on the small monarch
to the left.
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How
did you do on the questions? I
hope you learned a lot about monarchs |
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