Rebecca: Do baby butterflies have butter in them?***
I've wondered myself, do "baby" butterflies really even exist? I wonder if they grow once they change from a caterpillar. Are they already an "adult"? How long do they live? I could probably Google it, but I'd love to tap your the wisdom first.
Pretty sure that butterfly is the name of the adult stage: egg, larvae, pupae, adult. (the caterpillar is the name for the larval stage; we call the pupa a chrysalis - or cocoon if the adult is a moth) and no - they don't have butter in them, though I always loved that part in Disney's Alice..."little bread and butterflies kiss the tulips (two-lips)"
ReplyDeleteActually, now that I think about it, the pupa of a moth is IN a cocoon...right? The butterfly caterpillar doesn't spin a cocoon, but becomes a chrysalis, though.
ReplyDeleteNope, no baby butterflies! Stephanie has it right; the caterpillar hatches out of an egg, eats my vegetables, grows slightly, forms a chrysalis, then pops out as a fully formed adult. The adult has an exoskeleton, as do almost all insects. Unless the adult insect sheds the exoskeleton (think Cicadas), you can assume it doesn't grow.
ReplyDeleteI like the butter question. And just to make sure I was correct before I pushed Post Comment, I googled what I said and found this cool FAQ....
http://www.obsessionwithbutterflies.com/butterflies.html
Good info! Someone was recently asking something about baby butterflies here too...and I think I just went along with it :/ After a while, it crossed my mind that hmmmmm, there's probably not really such a thing as "baby butterflies".....
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