.The Life Cycle Of Butterfly.

The life cycle of butterfly by Catherine Carabott:

Phase 1: The Egg

After mating the female butterfly lays eggs on the underside of a leaf.

The eggs are about the size of a pinhead.

They can be round, oval or cylindrical.

They are usually white, cream or light green.

Phase 2: The Caterpillar

The tiny worm like insect hatches out of the egg.

It first eats the egg shell then turns to the surrounding leaves.

It eats enormously and grows to 100 times its original size.

Phase 3: The Pupa or Chrysalis

When it is time, it attaches itself upside down to a branch.

It changes colour and its body contracts.

It spins a girdle of silk round its middle for support.

It stops feeding, splits its skin for the last time to reveal the pupa.

Phase 4: The butterfly

When the changes are complete the case of the pupa splits.

The butterfly struggles out of the shell.

Its wings are small and soft at first.

When these harden, expand and dry the butterfly is ready to fly!