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Once the caterpillar hatches, it grows rapidly. Monarch caterpillars shed their exoskeleton or molt as they grow. The black thing that pops off at the end of the video is the head capsule. A monarch caterpillar sheds its exoskeleton 5 times. It goes through five instars. An instar is a stage between molts. When the caterpillar emerges from it egg it is a first instar caterpillar. When the caterpillar is fully grown, it will find a suitable place to make its chrysalis.
It spends approximately 18 hours in this position depending on environmental factors. As you can see in the video, the exoskeleton splits near its head and the caterpillar wiggles to discard it. As the monarch sheds its exoskeleton for the final time as a caterpillar, it forms a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar begins its transformation into a butterfly. The first few hours of the chrysalis pupa stage is delicate, as the exoskeleton is soft and weak. Monarch chrysalis by Dani Tinker.
Then, the butterfly must wait for the damp wings to dry and harden until they are ready to use. Blue morpho butterflies are native to the tropical forests of Central and South America. These butterflies are famous for their bright, translucent blue wings that appear blue due to reflected light rather than pigment. Like the monarch butterfly, morpho butterflies emerge from a green chrysalis, though a morpho's chrysalis is much plumper and has fewer golden spots. Unlike the monarch's chrysalis, a blue morpho's chrysalis never becomes completely transparent.
Instead, the chrysalis becomes partially brown and partially transparent with a milky-white quality just before a blue morpho butterfly is ready to emerge. Amazingly, blue morphos have developed a way to protect themselves from predators even in their vulnerable chrysalis stage. The chrysalis of this butterfly emits a repulsive ultrasonic sound when touched, which drives predators away. Mechanitis polymnia butterflies are small, thin-bodied butterflies native to South America.
They have small rounded wings, long yellow antennae, and coloration similar to that of monarchs with a bit of yellow and white mixed in. The most impressive stage of the Mechanitis polymnia's life cycle, by far, occurs before the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis. Mechanitis polymnia chrysalises are nearly solid gold with bold black and brown stripes patterned throughout. These metallic chrysalises are what give the butterfly part of its name: mechanitis.
It is a reference to the machinelike quality of the highly unusual-looking chrysalises. Whereas most other cocoon-spinning insects create their cocoons out of solid material that covers the body and dries when it contacts air, the silk worm uses a long thread of silk, nearly a mile long, and wraps it around himself continuously until completely covered, a process that takes three days.
If the insect is disturbed during this process, he will have to start completely anew. The pupation period for silkworms is about three weeks. It is during this period that silk makers harvest the silk from the cocoons. Most species of moths, butterflies and other metamorphosing insects are capable of holding off certain changes in their life cycle by a process known as diapause.
Diapause can cause an insect to remain in the pupal chrysalis form, wrapped in his cocoon for months or even years before emerging as an imago stage insect. Diapause can be triggered by climatic or other environmental changes that present unfavorable conditions for the imago insect. By using the site, you agree to the uses of cookies and other technology as outlined in our Policy, and to our Terms of Use.
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