Explanation

Metamorphosis of Butterfly

                Butterfly is the beautiful insect. Before, it had 4 phases called metamorphosis. Those are egg, larva, pupa, and adult animal (butterfly). The first phase is egg. It is white and very small. It takes almost a week to hatch. The larva develops inside the egg and nourishes on the yolk of the egg. Finally, they make a small hole in the egg and emerge on the leaf. Here the second stage begins. The larva of the butterfly is called caterpillar. The caterpillar grows fast feeding on the leaves. In two weeks they become an adult caterpillar. The adult caterpillar has eight pairs of legs. As the caterpillar grows longer it outgrows its skin. It sheds the skin. This process is called molting. In this stage, caterpillar molts its skin around five to six times. The fully-grown adult caterpillar, start crawling away from the plant it was feeding on and keeps crawling till it finds a safe haven to pupate. It makes a silk-like mat on the surface and hangs upside down. The last pair of legs is attached to the silk-like mat. It hangs for one whole day like this and takes the shape of the alphabet "J". Caterpillar sheds its skin for the last time before it moves into the next stage. When the caterpillar enters the third phase, it has already shed its eight pairs of legs and the head capsule, which had housed six eye lenses. The skin of the caterpillar is shed for the final time and the casing takes the color of jade. This casing is called chrysalis. Though initially chrysalis is soft gradually within an hour it hardens to form a protective shell. The pupate of a butterfly is otherwise known as chrysalis. Within the chrysalis the caterpillar slowly turns into a butterfly. There is a transformation-taking place within the pupa. The body parts of the caterpillar disintegrate to form the body parts of the butterfly. The transformation period of chrysalis to butterfly takes around 10 to 15 days. The hardened chrysalis cracks and the butterfly emerge from it. The wings of the butterfly are small and wet. It clings onto the shell of the chrysalis. At this juncture, a life-saving fluid known as hemolymph is pumped into the body of the butterfly. Hemolymph spreads slowly throughout the body and the wings. This helps in enlarging the wings and the body of the butterfly. Remember that the wings are wet and the butterfly is unable to fly. However, within an hour the wings become dry and the butterfly is ready to fly.