Butterfly Life Cycle

Here we look at the Life Cycle of the Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), probably Britain's most well known butterfly.

The first stage in the lifecycle of a butterfly is the egg. The egg is very small only as big as a pinhead. The mother butterfly lays her egg on a leaf which she has made sticky so when the caterpillar hatches it will be able to eat straight away. It hatches in a few days.



The second stage in the lifecycle of a butterfly is the caterpillar, also called the Larva stage. The job of a caterpillar is to eat lots and lots; they are like an eating machine. They grow for about 12 to 14 days. When it is big enough the caterpillar splits its skin and crawls out.



The third stage in the lifecycle of a butterfly is the pupa. It begins as a newly altered larva, turns into a highly camouflaged bag of liquid life-chemicals anchored to a plant or buried out of sight; it grows a chrysalis to protect the pupa. You can find a chrysalis attached to a twig. It stays attached with a button of silk. This stage lasts for about one week, and then finally emerges as a perfect adult Butterfly or Moth. It's magic!



The last stage in the lifecycle of the butterfly is the adult. When the butterfly comes out of the chrysalis it looks damp and crumpled. It hangs from its chrysalis and pumps blood into its wings. It takes two hours before it dries off and it can fly. They will then fly off and find a mate and produce the next generation of butterflies, some of them will travel very long distances.

Butterfly Life Cycle Video

Kids Butterfly Gifts

Images very kindly donated by Pete Eeles at www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Red Admiral Ovum image by Reg Fry