Hi! My name is Maria and today we are going to learn together about how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly in four stages.

In the first stage, the caterpillar lays their eggs on a leaf. The eggs are small and look like circles or ovals.

In the second stage, the caterpillar hatches from the egg, they are called larvae.

when a caterpillar first hatches they can be 0.9-1.2cm long.

The larvae need to eat to grow. They first eat the egg that they were born from.

Monarch caterpillars are one of the few species that can feed on the milkweed leaf. This leaf has poisonous sap.

Once the caterpillar finishes the egg, they then eat the leaf that the egg was laid on.

As the caterpillar continues to eat, they grow. Because the caterpillars exoskeleton does not grow with them, the caterpillar molts.

The third stage starts when the caterpillar leaves the leaf and starts to find a place to hide high off the ground.

Once the caterpillar has found a spot, he can start to pupate. Once in the spot, they form a J shape.

The caterpillar stays in the J position for up to 48 hours while it removes itself from the exoskeleton. Now it is a pupa.

Only 10% of caterpillars make it to this stage.

The pupa stays in the chrysalis for about 15 days. The pupa does not move and stays very still.

While in the chrysalis the pupa undergoes many changes called metamorphosis. It changes colors, and starts to grow wings.

In the final and fourth stage, emergence begins. A few hours before the butterfly emerges, the chrysalis becomes transparent and the colors start to appear.