The monarch larva (caterpillar) goes through its own ‘mini stages’ of development before becoming a pupa. Caterpillars usually hatch in three to eight days. (Some predators will bite off part of a tentacle, giving the caterpillar a chance to escape.) Parsley isn’t in the milkweed family, so if they are monarch caterpillars it’s interesting to know they’ve chosen a different host plant. Life cycle The female monarch butterfly lays each of her eggs individually on the leaf of a milkweed plant, attaching it with a bit of glue she secretes. Most Monarchs hatch, and live their whole lives, during the warm season; they live three or four months altogether, about half of that time in their adult form. In a period of 3 weeks, they are more than 2,500 times larger than at their birth. Copyright © 2020 ActiveWild.com. The life cycle of a Monarch butterfly as told from the perspective of the butterfly. It’s interesting to watch Monarchs flutter and jostle among other butterflies, and other insects, at flowers and puddles. I’m in South Florida and I have Monarchs every year. Inside these tiny eggs, caterpillars grow. The monarch’s life cycle. The cuticle of the chrysalis becomes transparent and the monarch's characteristic orange and black wings become visible. A Look At One Of The World’s Most Important Scientific Agreements, Monarch Caterpillar Stages With Pictures & Facts, Clouded Leopard Facts For Kids & Students: Pictures, Information & Video, Animals That Start With L: List With Pictures & Facts, Desert Animals: A List Of Animals That Live In The Desert With Pictures & Facts – Plus FREE question sheet, Nine-Banded Armadillo Facts, Pictures & In-Depth Information, Bighorn Sheep Facts: Discover The Largest Sheep Native To North America, American Alligator Facts, Pictures & In-Depth Information. They cannot survive without plants in the genus Asclepias.However, a full answer to the question of butterfly nutrition, considering all the sources of nourishment the insects take in during the four stages of the Monarch Butterfly life cycle, goes beyond milkweed, even though. Unlike the caterpillars, which feed only on milkweeds, the adult monarchs feed on a variety of nectar-producing plants. The stages between molts are known as an ‘instars’. At first, the new skin is very soft, and provides little support or protection. Adult females will … 5 - 10. ¦        (Like most caterpillars they also have four pairs of “prolegs" on the abdomen and a pair of “claspers" at the back end, and also use their jaws to hold on to things while walking. She may or may not ever see the baby butterflies that hatch from those eggs. Flying Squirrels Facts: Meet The Gliding Rodents Of North America! The tentacles are now quite long and can be lashed dramatically. The tentacles are short and may look like even more legs.) Acknowledgements: Background plate images of life cycle stages courtesy of Jacqui Knight and Kath Widdowson. Mating takes place on the ground, with male and female butterflies remaining attached to one another for between 30 minutes to an hour. They illustrate and label the life cycle, and then research and take notes on survival techniques and preparation for migration at each stage. Click on one of titles to find out more about each stage. Why the Ads? The third larval skin is striped and begins to develop the distinctive tentacles a Monarch caterpillar uses to flail about and distract predators. How long Monarch Butterflies live depends partly on the individual butterfly’s place in the four-generation-a-year Monarch Butterfly life cycle. (It’s completely free, you can unsubscribe at any time, and we’ll never share your details.). 2 PDFs, 1 Video, 5 Images, 1 Link. And do you know how long they can last without eating? The flowers are so bright and beautiful as are the butterflies and I feel like a mother to them all. Tiny wasps can bite through the chrysalis and kill the butterfly inside. This is a monarch butterfly egg. Insects > Monarch Butterflies > Monarch Butterflies The King of Butterflies and His Royal Family Welcome to Monarch-Butterfly.com, the web site for fun facts about monarch butterflies—everything from what they look like, what they eat, where they live, to where to find cool coloring pages and temporary monarch butterfly tattoos, to how to rear your own butterflies in a butterfly garden. Watching Monarch butterflies’ wings develop, as the colors brighten and the butterfly stretches, flexes, but remains on its perch, is often described as a lesson in patience. Thanks for the info. Our articles are free for you to copy and distribute. In the final stage, as “mature caterpillars," Monarch larvae can be 5 cm long—almost three inches—and weigh as much as 1.5 grams. When is it safe to cut the grass without ruining the lifecycle of the monarchs? The host plant is what the caterpillars will eat. The adult butterfly is sometimes called the imago, the “image" by which the species is best known. How to Raise Monarch Butterflies Get the whole family involved and see the magic of raising butterflies at home through their eyes. The life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Nothing is wasted in nature! The generations overlap to some extent, with most butterflies flying for up to two months while the final generation (the individuals who hibernate) have a life span of up to eight months. Hopefully everyone else reading this will be inspired to plant more milkweeds. Once ready, the caterpillar leaves its egg home and enters the big outside wo… 3 4 Photo Journey North Photo Journey North The Caterpillar (or Larva) This monarch butterfly hatched just a few minutes ago. Second instar Monarch caterpillars have tiny bristly hairs on the skin that begins to show bands of yellow, black, and white. / 2 – 6 mm) monarch caterpillar eats what remains of its egg, then turns its attention to the milkweed leaf. You only need a few supplies to make this fun and easy butterfly life cycle craft! It is during this stage that Monarchs do all of their growing. Four generations will typically complete the life cycle in a year. Once a suitable site has been found, the caterpillar attaches itself to a the underside of a stem, leaf, twig, etc., and will hang for around 12 hours preparing to pupate. It only takes 4-5 weeks for a full monarch life cycle to complete so fresh energetic butterflies are ready every month after the start of the migration. Each successive instar is larger than the previous instar and slightly different in appearance. Monarch butterfly eggs are whitish, egg-shaped, typically a little more than a millimeter long and a little less than a millimeter wide. Monarch Butterflies are sometimes called Milkweed Butterflies because of their symbiotic relationship with milkweed. The first meal for the caterpillar is the eggshell. You can see the egg on the underside of a milkweed leaf if one is present. The monarch has four distinct life stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult. Adult Monarchs have six legs but usually stand and walk on only four, holding their front legs up around their heads. The chrysalis’s green color provides camouflage against the foliage. Although the adult butterfly does not do any more growing, it still has to feed in order to acquire energy. By the fifth and final instar the monarch caterpillar is between 1 and 1.8 in. The life cycle of a butterfly includes four distinct phases: egg, larva (growing through five changes of skin, or instars), pupa, and adult. How many kinds of milk weed are there? By the third instar Monarch caterpillars are starting to develop this feature, with front legs noticeably shorter than the two other pairs of legs on the thorax. Monarch butterfly eggs take from 3 to 5 days to hatch. After hatching the butterfly has to wait for its wings to dry out and become fully extended before it can fly away in search of nectar. The reproductive patterns of monarch butterflies are to an extent influenced by the temperature. Transcript Egg Egg – location. Before mating, males pursue females in the air. Adult monarchs live for anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks, and females lay eggs and males mate throughout most of this period. It crawls slowly out of the back of its chrysalis, looking dull, wet, and crumpled. As with all butterflies, there are four main stages in the monarch butterfly’s life cycle: egg; larva (caterpillar); pupa (chrysalis); imago (adult butterfly). While most big moths live entirely on fat stored up from the food they ate as caterpillars, adult butterflies require some food. Just an ounce of prevention in raising monarch butterflies will help you avoid monarch diseases, parasites, and death, so you can grow healthy monarchs through the entire monarch butterfly life cycle. As well as its six true legs, the monarch caterpillar has five pairs of ‘false’ legs, known as ‘prolegs’. You can find out more about monarch caterpillars on this page: Monarch Caterpillar Stages. Follow the link below to find out more and to sign up! The monarch butterfly has a fascinating life cycle and migration pattern that is repeated every single year. It hangs upside-down and sheds its yellow and black skin, revealing the leaf-green protective shell of the chrysalis underneath. She has no noticeable instinct to watch her babies grow up, or interact with them in any way while they are growing. All butterflies undergo an extreme makeover in the pupal stage. Q: A Monarch larva will go through five of these? Great question. and which is the Monarch’s favorite? The larval stage of the monarch butterfly life cycle takes from 10 to 14 days. The pupal stage of a butterfly is known as a chrysalis. The first instar is the newly-hatched caterpillar, the second instar is the caterpillar after its first molt, and so on. Contents. How many different “colors” does the egg change to before hatching? Witness a caterpillar larva eat milkweed, form its pupa, and emerge a monarch butterfly The life cycle of a monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). These butterflies have bigger, stronger wings than other species and take more time before they are ready to fly. Barely two millimeters long when they stretch themselves out of the eggshells, their translucent bodies grow up to six millimeters long during the few days they spend outgrowing their first, drab larval skins. Join the thousands of Active Wild subscribers who receive free wildlife and science news & info direct to their inboxes! Renowned for their beauty, grace, and migrations, Monarch Butterflies, Danaus plexippus, may be the most-loved butterflies in America. Depending on the species, the eggs can vary in shape and texture they can be round, oval or cylindrical, and smooth, bumpy or wrinkled. Most of the butterflies in this final generation begin their lives in the northern US or southern Canada, and then migrate thousands of … A detailed look at the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, with pictures and facts. Instead, the journey is split between multiple generations. The experiences of struggling out through the chrysalis, then resting on the empty shell for a few hours, are essential in order for the butterfly to have a healthy adult life. It is so easy and never fails. Again, ecologists warn that this behavior pattern is typical of species that need biodiversity to survive, and should be allowed to roam naturally rather than “farmed" or bred in captivity. Love growing Monarchs in Sandwich, IL. A monarch is an egg for 3-8 days. What Is The Antarctic Treaty? Monarchs living in more southerly regions may complete their northerly migration over two generations. After about a day in this position the final larval skin splits and drops off, revealing a smooth, rounded green chrysalis. When the caterpillar has become too large for its skin, it molts, or sheds its skin. The egg is packed with nutrients. American Badger Facts, Pictures & In-Depth Information. What makes the monarch butterfly particularly interesting is that it combines the usual four-stage butterfly life cycle with one of the longest migrations of the insect world. Both are correct. Wild Monarch caterpillars are likely to climb up onto your hand if you hold out a finger in front of them, while cage-reared ones may go into fits of tentacle-whipping that probably indicate that they’d prefer to be left alone. At about this time and even a little earlier the seeds of the beautiful milkweeds start to drop. It is eating its own shell. can someone tell me the answer im not good at animal stuff. In the fourth instar the caterpillars finally grow a full inch long. Males are usually a little bigger than females and sometimes manage to knock them to the ground, which is rougher play than is usually observed in butterflies. Let us know how your caterpillars get on! They die when they get “old,” just like people do. This skin grows up to a full centimeter long. Life Cycle Coloring Page; Monarch Butterfly Release for your Event; Pictures of Butterflies; Insects > Monarch Butterflies > Helping Monarch Butterflies (Conservation) Conservation: How to Help Monarch Butterflies. Is parsley in the milkweed family because every time I plant it I get a family of monarch caterpillars? Although the fall butterflies lived up to 9 months, these new breeding spring butterflies only live 2-6 weeks. It all starts when a female butterfly lays her eggs, usually on leaves or stems of plants. Once the eggs are fertilized, they are ready to laid on milkweed plants and the life cycle starts over again. The monarch caterpillar sheds its skin (a process known as a molt, or moult in British English) five times. Once it is ready to pupate, the monarch caterpillar stops eating and may be found away from its food plant as it searches for a suitable location for pupation. Life Cycle Notes . During its lifetime, an individual Monarch butterfly will have eight completely different outer surfaces, each in a different size, shape, and color combination. The monarch butterfly has one of the best-known life cycles in the insect world. When ready to pupate, the monarch caterpillar attaches itself to the underside of a leaf or other surface with a sticky silk pad. The entire process is called complete metamorphosis and is one of two ways insects develop from an egg to an adult. Chrysalis to butterfly video Video. Unlike the journey south, the northward trip is taken in stages, with no single butterfly making the entire journey. Th… Tentacle lashing is basically a stress reaction, so the fact that caterpillars reared in captivity do it more often than wild caterpillars do probably indicates that they feel stressed, rather than that they “wave hello." Eating and growing is basically everything that happens in this stage of the Monarch butterfly life cycle. Active Wild Pinterest Active Wild Facebook. ActiveWild.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for website owners to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon stores. Four generations will typically complete the life cycle in a year. © monarch-butterfly.com. The monarchs that spend the winter in the mountains of central Mexico are the final generation of a cycle that begins anew each year. Photos: Egg by William Zittrich; Larva by USDA; Pupa by William Zittrich; Adult by Tanya Harvey. Very interesting. At the end of metamorphosis, the adult emerges from the chrysalis, expands and dries its wings and flies away. . Grades. That was very interesting to find out the procedure of the Monarch Butterfly. Adult Monarchs need a lot of space. There’s every chance that your caterpillars will successfully hatch and continue their migration south. Discover amazing animals from all around the world. Hi, about how long does it take for the caterpillar to make a pupa? They are already “very hungry caterpillars." Depleting Milkweed Plant Affecting Monarchs. We’ve had two leave the swan plant and go onto a wooden fence, and I’ve put them higher so they can reach onto a cross bar to hang from. As with all butterflies, there are four main stages in the monarch butterfly life cycle: (You can click on any of the stages below to go to the relevant part of the page.). During mid-summer, the process goes from egg to adult in a month or so. Like humans, the female Monarch butterfly produces eggs that need to be fertilized by the sperm of the male Monarch butterfly. Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle The eggs are laid individually on the undersides of the leaves of milkweed plants. Bigger butterflies tend to lay bigger eggs, and individuals tend to lay their biggest eggs first. Caterpillar or larva? Click the picture above for more details & to view free sample pages! Each year I take the seeds out of the pods and plant them in starter pots, they grow so easily and I end up placing them all over the place (they like sun and watering). It begins with the mating of a male and female. … That would make sense, they are somewhat similar. I have about 12 monarch caterpillars on my butterfly weed plants. We have a big field with lots of milkweed and monarchs. Milkweeds are any plant of genus Asclepias. Other North American butterflies survive the winter as eggs or pupae, but only the Monarch Butterfly’s life span allows it to survive the winter as an adult butterfly. Milkweed is a poisonous plant to some animals. February-March: The First Generation The first generation of Monarch Butterfly eggs, whichlook like tiny pale yellowish beads, may be laid as early as February in the Southern States, as Monarchs return from hibernation in Mexico and California. Her only maternal act is to try to give each potential caterpillar enough food for it to eat without destroying its food plant. (2.5 and 4.5 cm) in length. Subjects . News and facts about animals, natural history and science. The stages include, egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Buy supplies for you or unique butterfly gifts: Mesh caterpillar … Unless a member of the south-migrating generation, a monarch butterfly takes from 4 to 5 days to reach sexual maturity and lives in its adult form for between 2 and 5 weeks. Make sure to give www.learnaboutnature.com credit for the article. During this stage the caterpillar grows another half centimeter in length, and begins to nibble around the edges of milkweed leaves as well as making holes in the middle. The return migration takes place in spring, usually beginning in March. They are oval-shaped, around 1mm in height, and white / pale cream in color. Monarchs (and all butterflies) are sensitive to air temperature. This is one of the best sites for finding out information. They need bio chemicals from milkweed, which are toxic to most animals, as part of their diet and probably get some benefits from the minerals in mud. The butterfly’s bright orange color warns potential predators of its toxicity. It shows no signs of life for about two weeks, during which the caterpillar inside is reshaping itself into a butterfly. At this point the life cycle of the monarch butterfly is complete. The Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle There are four stages in the life cycle of a butterfly. (They also touch food sources with their feet, which probably have some sense of taste or at least of succulence.) Biology, Experiential Learning. Under a magnifying glass you might even see the little ridges on the sides of the egg. We hope this helps. Click on the photo below to discover this week’s animal! A butterfly or moth pupa is called a chrysalis. Individual monarch butterflies are known to travel thousands of miles in their fall migration. How Long is the Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle It takes a monarch butterfly 28–32 days to complete its life cycle. The monarch migration begins in mid-August, when monarch butterflies living in Canada and the United States begin to migrate south to the southern United States and Mexico, where the species overwinters. Thanks. You can find out more about these stages (and see pictures of caterpillars in each stage) on this page: Monarch Caterpillar Stages. The transparent chrysalis splits open and the adult butterfly finally emerges. At this time,April, I am now seeing 5 or 6 caterpillars on my milkweeds. It is not much bigger than the head of a pin! (Assuming that they aren’t in the generation that migrates.) It is already October and aren’t they supposed to be migrating? Afterward, it feeds solely on the milkweed leaves. A monarch is a caterpillar for 7-17 days. Like many insects, the beautiful monarch butterfly starts life as a wingless larva. Prior to hatching, the chrysalis becomes transparent, allowing the adult butterfly’s colors to be seen. The butterfly has a lifespan of 60–70 days during the summer, but this extends to 6–7 months if the butterfly pupates in autumn. The first thing they eat is their own empty eggshells. They have a fascinating story. Whereas the entire life cycle of a northward-traveling monarch butterfly takes only between 2 to 5 weeks to complete, the lifespan of a southward-migrating monarch butterfly can be as long as 8 to 9 months. Click on the stages tabs to learn more about the different stages of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly. One adult female will typically produce 300 to 1100 eggs...which tells us something about the survival prospects of a butterfly. They grow up to about 3-4 feet tall, have pretty red and yellow flowers. When the caterpillars have eaten as much as they can, they stop eating and look for a safe place to rest. They grow extremely quickly. The chrysalis is a case with no eyes, legs, or other movable parts. The final molt itself takes around 5 minutes (this is when the caterpillar’s skin splits and is shed to reveal the pupa). Butterflies and moths have four stages of life: egg, larva (the caterpillar stage), pupa (the chrysalis phase in a butterfly's development), and adult. The pupal stage of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly lasts from 10 to 14 days. What causes cage-reared caterpillars to seem more stressed than wild ones may be that they sense the presence of other caterpillars in the same cage in addition to the proximity of humans. Like many butterflies, Monarchs seem to prefer muddy, polluted water. They can take nectar from a variety of sources, but their favorite flowers grow on big, tall plants and bear drops of nectar in clumps of narrow tube-shaped petals. The larva transforms into a pupa, then into an adult butterfly in a process called metamorphosis. Milkweed is their only food. All Rights Reserved. There are over 200 Asclepias species of milkweed, but not all are found in the U.S. They grow so quickly by mo… All Rights Reserved. The Monarch Life Cycle (technically called metamorphosis) is the series of developmental stages that insects go through to become adults. Adult monarch butterflies on the other hand, consume nectar of flowers as a source of its nutrition. After hatching, the tiny (0.8 – 0.23 in. Monarch Butterfly Life is your resource for quality mesh butterfly cages and raising butterflies supplies & info to grow healthy monarchs and other butterflies through the 4 stage butterfly life cycle. Monarch caterpillars do none of these things, but attach a little pad of silk to the underside of a sturdy surface, lock their claspers, hang upside down, curl their heads up toward their midsections, and wait. These toxic chemicals stay in the monarch’s body even in its adult form. Some species spin cocoons of silk around themselves, burrow into the ground, or hide among dead leaves. Whereas the entire life cycle of a northward-traveling monarch butterfly takes only between 2 to 5 weeks to complete, the lifespan of a southward-migrating monarch butterfly can be as long as 8 to 9 months. Monarchs like to crowd together only during hibernation. Both males and females will mate several times with different partners. Monarchs will likely be happy with any native milkweed, but below is a list of tried and tested species: Milkweeds known to be suitable for monarchs include: Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa); California Milkweed (Asclepias californica); Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca); Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens); Showy Milkweed (Asclepias speciosa); Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata); and Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata). (Nevertheless, even Monarchs don’t hurt each other. The life cycle of a monarch butterfly starts when a female butterfly lays an egg on milkweed which is their host plant. ¦           © Learn About Nature. That’s a great question. White spots are visible on their prolegs, and the tentacles, which remain solid black, grow long enough to be whipped about. Butterfly Life Cycle Craft for Kids. They are clustered in a seed pod. When two Monarchs do fly together, they are usually play-fighting. All rights reserved. The new skin soon hardens and molds itself to the caterpillar, which often eats the shed skin before starting in anew on plant food! They don’t form pair bonds; individuals usually mate more than once, and flutter about looking for different partners as well as different milkweed plants. These other insects are neither predators nor competitors, so the Monarchs seem to tolerate their company more than they tolerate other Monarchs’ company. During the species’ annual migration south, individual butterflies are known to travel up to 3,000 miles from Canada to Mexico. Each of these changes of skin normally lasts less than a week. Monarch Butterfly Life Cycle and Migration Students watch a time-lapse video of the monarch butterfly life cycle. After this, the only animal protein meal they will ever need, they become vegetarians, nibbling little holes in milkweed leaves. That’s wonderful, thank you for your comment! Photo by Rick Mikula Photo by Connie Hodsdon. The first meal a caterpillar has as it hatches is its own egg. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. It may be the great-grandchildren of a monarch butterfly that hatched in Mexico that finally return to the northernmost regions of the butterfly’s range. Life Cycle Monarchs, like other butterflies and moths, undergo complete metamorphosis, meaning that they have an egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult stage. Monarch caterpillars don’t seem to explore much of the world around them, and may spend the whole caterpillar stage of their lives on one milkweed plant. The eggs are the yellow dots the arrow is pointing to. The egg and caterpillar stages occur only on species of milkweed (genus Asclepias) whereas adults … The time it takes for the eggs to hatch can also vary in some species, they will hatch within a few weeks and in others they will only hatch once the weather is warm enough. Insects > Monarch Butterflies > Monarch Butterflies. Life Cycle. Milkweed leaves aren’t only important as a food source; they also contain chemicals known as cardenolides which make the caterpillar distasteful to predators. With its black-veined, orange-paneled wings, this large insect is a familiar sight across the United States, southern Canada and Mexico. They eat liquids slurped up through the proboscis, which looks like a coarse, curly hair and functions like a drinking straw. They begin life by eating their eggshell, and then move on to the plant on which they were laid. The monarch butterfly, like other insects, has several life forms and stages prior to reaching adulthood. In order to fully understand the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, we first need to take a look at the insect’s migratory pattern. These are equipped with tiny hooks for holding onto surfaces. From an egg not much larger than the period at the end of this sentence, they evolve magically into 0.02-ounce (0.75 g) adults capable of flying hundreds of miles! The monarch butterfly is one of the best-known butterfly species of North America. Monarch butterfly life cycle. Members of the southward-migrating generation of monarch butterflies have a much longer total lifespan of 8 to 9 months, and will not start mating until spring. The monarch butterfly undergoes four stages of complete metamorphosis: Because the fall months seem to be getting warmer, it’s not too unusual to see late season monarch caterpillars in October, and even into November. The tentacles at either end of the caterpillar’s body are sense organs. Every year! And if you’re learning about monarchs, this is the perfect activity to learn about this butterfly. Discover how the monarch butterfly combines its four-stage life cycle with one of the longest migrations of the insect world…. We’ll find out more about each of the stages below: Female monarch butterflies each lay around 300 to 1,000 eggs. Thank you for your comment, we’re glad you find the site useful! You can find out more about monarch butterflies on this page: Monarch Butterfly Facts. A butterfly or moth larva is called a caterpillar. Caterpillars whose vision has been studied seem to be so nearsighted that they probably are not able to see all of a human at one time. Millions of monarch butterflies take part in the migration, making it one of the world’s most impressive natural spectacles. Monarchs get most of their nourishment from flower nectar. We humans don’t know all the things that may help or harm Monarch Butterfly populations. Monarch caterpillars only eat milkweed, which is why it is important that these plants, which are often treated as weeds, are planted and conserved. If the crossbar is within a short crawl of your caterpillars’ location then hopefully it will provide a suitable spot for pupation to take place. One observer reported that about one out of three collision flights ended with the participants mating.). Appropriate for students in early elementary school. Other sites mostly don’t even have their habitats or anything. The larval stage of a monarch butterfly is spent feeding on a plant species called milkweed. A few predators even smaller than the pupal butterfly can attack Monarch chrysalides, which is another good reason why, if you raise butterflies in captivity, environmental scientists recommend not trying to rear a lot of them at one time. A newborn caterpillar is 1/16 th of an inch long. As the monarch butterfly metamorphoses into its adult form, the chrysalis can be seen to make slight movements. At the fifth molt the insect enters its pupal stage. Monarch butterfly caterpillars take advantage of this poisonous substance and use it to drive away potential predators. Egg-laying takes place shortly after mating has occurred. The one, two, or ten eggs that become adult butterflies have literally been naturally selected as the fittest to survive out of a thousand. Visit our butterfly activity page for fun projects like rearing LIVE butterflies, coloring pages, and more. This is why the adult butterflies always lay their eggs on milkweed plants, as caterpillars are too small to travel to another plant for food. The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly During its lifetime, an individual Monarch butterfly will have eight completely different outer surfaces, each in a different size, shape, and color combination. How Can I Help? Monarch hatchlings are nondescript pale greenish animals. The larval stage of a butterfly is known as a caterpillar. If possible, the female Monarch will place just one egg on each of about a thousand milkweed plants.