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The following description of the tent caterpillar life cycle is based on that of the eastern tent caterpillar, the best-known species. The details of the life histories of other species vary to a small extent. Tent caterpillars hatch from their eggs in the early spring at the time the leaves of their host trees are just unfolding.
The fertilised egg matures and hatches to give a caterpillar. The caterpillar is the feeding stage of the lepidopteran life cycle. The caterpillar needs to be able to feed and to avoid being eaten and much of its morphology has evolved to facilitate these two functions.
The vast majority of butterflies have a four-stage life cycle: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis) and imago (adult). In the genera Colias, Erebia, Euchloe, and Parnassius, a small number of species are known that reproduce semi-parthenogenetically; when the female dies, a partially developed larva emerges from her abdomen. [41]
Throughout its life as a larva the saddleback caterpillar will go through a series of growths and molts. During the period between each molt the larva is regarded as an instar to indicate its progression into adulthood. The first instar: Caterpillar larvae vary in size and are capable of being between 1.5-2.0mm in length. [3]
An earlier popular publication on moths and butterflies, and their caterpillars, by Jan Goedart had not included eggs in the life stages of European moths and butterflies, because he had believed that caterpillars were generated from water. When Merian published her study of caterpillars it was still widely believed that insects were ...
A pupa (from Latin pupa 'doll'; pl.: pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages thereof being egg, larva, pupa, and imago.
The green eggs are laid singly on plants of the families Magnoliaceae and Rosaceae. Young caterpillars are brown and white; older ones are green with two black, yellow, and blue eyespots on the thorax. The caterpillar will turn brown prior to pupating. It will reach a length of 5.5 centimetres (2.2 in).
Gynaephora groenlandica, the Arctic woolly bear moth, is an erebid moth native to the High Arctic in the Canadian archipelago, Greenland and Wrangel Island in Russia. [2] [4] It is known for its slow rate of development, as its full caterpillar life cycle may extend up to 7 years, with moulting occurring each spring. [5]