Monarch Life-Cycle / Metamorphosis
As a monarch makes the metamorphosis (a complete change of form, structure, or substance) from a an egg the size of a pinhead to a caterpillar about the size of your finger to a chrysalis about an inch long to a beautiful monarch butterfly.
Check out the video below for an amazing time-lapse video of a caterpillar going through the metamorphosis process to becoming a monarch butterfly!
Check out the video below for an amazing time-lapse video of a caterpillar going through the metamorphosis process to becoming a monarch butterfly!
Learning about the monarch's life cycle and metamorphosis can be as simple as just learning the 4 basic steps like the image on the right or more in-depth for each of the stages click the image on the left. Each pictures below has a link for where you can purchase it.
Life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly
The life cycle of a butterfly has four main parts: egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult.
Egg:
A female monarch butterflies lay between 300-500 eggs over two to five weeks, with a record in captivity of 1,179! She usually only lays one egg on each milkweed plant, often on the bottom of a leaf near the top of the plant by attaching it with a special glue.
Duration: The eggs hatch about four days after they are laid.
Appearance: Eggs are only about the size of a pinhead or pencil tip and are off-white or yellow, characterized by longitudinal ridges that run from the tip to the base.
The life cycle of a butterfly has four main parts: egg, larva (caterpillars), pupa (chrysalis) and adult.
Egg:
A female monarch butterflies lay between 300-500 eggs over two to five weeks, with a record in captivity of 1,179! She usually only lays one egg on each milkweed plant, often on the bottom of a leaf near the top of the plant by attaching it with a special glue.
Duration: The eggs hatch about four days after they are laid.
Appearance: Eggs are only about the size of a pinhead or pencil tip and are off-white or yellow, characterized by longitudinal ridges that run from the tip to the base.
Larva:
The word larva refers to the growth stage of all insects with complete metamorphosis. Caterpillar refers only to a butterfly or moth in this stage. Either word is correct. Because this is where the monarch does most of its growing it spends most of its time eating milkweed. As the caterpillar grows and becomes too large for its skin it molts, or sheds, its skin. The shed skin is often eaten before the caterpillar ingests more plant food! The intervals between molts are called instars. There are 5 instar stages for the larval stage.
Duration: Last 9-14 days.
Appearance:
- Head: has a pair of short antennae, mouth parts (upper lip, mandibles, and lower lip).
- Ocelli: the 6 pairs of simple eyes on the head that help the caterpillar see. The larvae have poor vision.
- Antennae: help guide the caterpillar as it moves.
- Maxillary palps: sensory organs that help direct food to its jaws.
- Spinneret: produces silk which the caterpillar uses to anchor itself when needed and to create the silk pad it uses to hang from when it pupates or goes into its chrysalis.
- Spiracles: Holes in the sides of the thorax and abdomen that allow the monarch to get oxygen. They are connected to a network of long air tubes called tracheae that carry the oxygen throughout their body.
- Leg Segments: each thoracic, or body, segment has a pair of joined legs, or true legs.
- Prolegs: The 5 pairs of false legs, or prolegs are located on some of the abdominal segments. Their purpose is to help hold the larvae onto the leaf with little hocks.
- Tentacles: located at the front and at the rear and function as sense organs.
Pupa:
Just before they pupate, or go into their chrysalis, monarch larvae spin a silk mat from which they hang upside down by their last pair of prolegs. The silk comes from the spinneret on the bottom of the head.
Duration: 8-15 days
Appearance: While the process of complete metamorphosis looks like four very distinct stages, continuous changes actually occur within the larva. The wings and other adult organs develop from tiny clusters of cells already present in the larva, and by the time the larva pupates, the major changes to the adult form have already begun. During the pupal stage this transformation is completed.
Many moth caterpillars (but not all) spin a silken cocoon to protect them as pupae. Butterflies do not do this, and their pupa stage is often called a chrysalis. While it is fine to refer to the previous stage as either larva or caterpillar, it is not correct to call a butterfly pupa a cocoon, since it does not have a silken covering.
Just before the monarchs emerge, their black, orange, and white wing patterns are visible through the pupa covering. This is not because the chrysalis becomes transparent; it is because the pigmentation on the scales of their wings only develops at the very end of the pupa stage. Each wing is covered by thousands upon thousands of colorful scales and hairs. These wing scales are tiny overlapping pieces of chitin.
Adult:
The primary job of the adult stage is to reproduce—to mate and lay the eggs that will become the next generation. Monarchs do not mate until they are three to eight days old. When they mate they remain together from one afternoon until early the next morning—often up to 16 hours. Females begin laying eggs immediately after their first mating, and both sexes can mate several times during their lives.
Each year, the final generation of monarchs, adults that emerge in late summer and early fall, have an additional job. They migrate to overwintering grounds in fall to avoid the harsh winters of their northern range. They spend the winter months in either central Mexico for eastern monarchs or along the California coast for western monarchs. Here they spend the winter clustered in trees until weather and temperature conditions allow them to return to their breeding grounds. These adults can live up to nine months.
Duration: Adults in summer generations live from two to five weeks. The final adult generation can live up to 9 months.
Appearance: Male and female monarchs can be distinguished easily. Males have a black spot on a vein on each hind wing that is not present on the female. These spots are made of specialized scales which produce a chemical used during courtship in many species of butterflies and moths, although such a chemical does not seem to be important in monarch courtship. The ends of the abdomens are also shaped differently in males and females, and females often look darker than males and have wider veins on their wings.
Source:
Life cycle. MJV News RSS. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/life-cycle
Monarch chrysalis right before the monarch emerges. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/teddyllovet/21707998670/.
Monarch madness. MONARCH MADNESS (Outdoor and Environmental Education). (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://schools.wrdsb.ca/environmental-education/citizen-science/monarch-madness/
Life cycle. MJV News RSS. (n.d.). Retrieved October 23, 2022, from https://monarchjointventure.org/monarch-biology/life-cycle
Monarch chrysalis right before the monarch emerges. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/teddyllovet/21707998670/.
Monarch madness. MONARCH MADNESS (Outdoor and Environmental Education). (n.d.). Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://schools.wrdsb.ca/environmental-education/citizen-science/monarch-madness/