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The caterpillar undergoes metamorphosis and emerges a butterfly. In the adult stage, within a few hours of emerging, the butterfly's wings dry and expand, allowing it to fly. During this stage, the butterfly focuses on reproduction and finding a mate. Once the female is fertilized, the cycle begins again.
Western tent caterpillars are gregarious and will spend a large portion of their time with other caterpillars in silken tents constructed during their larval stage. [2] Western tent caterpillars are univoltine, going through a single generation per year. [3] [4] Adults emerge in the late summer to copulate and lay eggs. Adult moths will ...
The blue copper, also known as Lycaena heteronea, is an American butterfly that belongs to the gossamer-winged family. The butterfly is named so because of the bright blue hue of the upper side of the males' wings. Females are brown on their upper side. Both sexes are white with black spots on the underside of the wings.
Some caterpillars, like early instars of the tomato hornworm and tobacco hornworm, have long "whip-like" organs attached to the ends of their body. The caterpillar wiggles these organs to frighten away flies and predatory wasps. [18] Some caterpillars can evade predators by using a silk line and dropping off from branches when disturbed.
Immediately after feeding the caterpillars return to the tent and aggregate in sunlight to facilitate the digestive process. Thus, eastern tent caterpillars are central place foragers. In contrast, the forest tent caterpillar is a nomadic forager that establishes a series of temporary resting sites during the course of its larval development.
The eastern giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly in North America. [2] It is abundant through many parts of eastern North America; populations from western North America and down into Panama are now (as of 2014) considered to belong to a different species, Papilio rumiko. [3]
In the adult butterflies, the first pair of legs is small or reduced, [3] giving the family the other names of four-footed or brush-footed butterflies. The caterpillars are hairy or spiky with projections on the head, and the chrysalids have shiny spots.
The California tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica) is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. The wings of the California tortoiseshell have ragged edges. The upper sides of the wings are orange with black spots and a wide black margin. The undersides of the wings are a mottled dark brown. Its wingspan varies from 3.2 to 7 cm (1 + 1 ⁄ 4 ...