Butterflies 101: Small butterflies are not "baby butterflies"

Those small butterflies you see fluttering around your yard or when you visit our native butterfly habitat? Those are not “baby butterflies”. Every butterfly you see is a fully-grown adult butterfly. It might be a smaller species such as the pearl crescent or cabbage white, but it is an adult and will not get any bigger.

Butterflies go through something called “complete metamorphosis”. This means their body when they are young changes, or morphs, into something that looks completely different by the time they reach adulthood.

There are four stages in the butterfly’s life cycle:

1. Egg

2. Larva (caterpillar)

3. Pupa (chrysalis) 

4. Adult (butterfly)

An adult butterfly lays her eggs on a host plant. The eggs hatch and tiny caterpillars emerge. This stage is called the larval stage. The caterpillar’s primary goal is to eat as much as possible. It eats and grows larger and larger. When it reaches the end of the larval stage it becomes a pupa. 

The pupal stage for a butterfly is a chrysalis (which is not a cocoon, but we will save that for another post!) The pupa’s job is transformation. A lot is happening inside the chrysalis that we can’t see- a butterfly is being created.

The adult stage is the final stage and the one we are most familiar with seeing in our backyard. The chrysalis turns transparent and the adult butterfly emerges. After a brief period where their wings dry and unfold the butterfly begins to fly. A butterfly’s main job is reproduction. Once the butterfly mates, the female will lay eggs on a host plant, and the cycle will repeat.