Caterpillars how long do they live

When it's time to hatch, the caterpillar produces a substance that dissolves one end of the cocoon, and the adult moth wriggles out. The most accurate answer to this question is, "When they're good and ready. Usually this takes several weeks from the time they hatch out of the egg laid by the adult.

Caterpillars can make cocoons at all times of the year, but it is by far most common for them to pupate over the winter. They eat and eat while leaves are out in the summer, spin a cocoon when it gets cold in the winter, and hatch out as an adult in the spring. Then the adults mate, lay eggs, and the process repeats all over again. There's some folklore out there that says the width of the bands on the banded woolly bear, Pyrrharctia isabella , predicts the severity of the coming winter, but there's no research to back this up.

Banded woolly bear showing the red and black bands that do NOT predict winter weather Most caterpillars you find will turn into a moth, not a butterfly, because there are about a hundred times more moths than butterflies out there.

Caterpillars with "fur," or very large caterpillars with horns or other decorations, are almost always moth caterpillars. Butterfly caterpillars are generally smaller and slimmer than moth caterpillars, and are either smooth or have branched spines all over them. These are only general rules, though. If you found a caterpillar and you want to know what it is, have a look at my Caterpillar Identification Guide. This is a good question. Whether a moth or a butterfly species, caterpillars eat a lot -- in fact, eating is their only purpose in life, since they're the phase in the cycle of metamorphosis change in form that is tasked with accumulating enough fat and calories to produce a big, beautiful adult.

But they don't eat all of the time. If you raise a caterpillar, you will notice that they eat at certain times of the day, and rest at other times. Many caterpillars eat at night, when the predators that want to eat them are unable to find them in the dark.

Caterpillars live on their food plant, and they basically never leave. They eat and rest, eat and rest, and shed their skin molt when the skin they're in gets too tight. Sometimes they come down to earth to prowl around for a good place to make a cocoon, and that's when most people find them. There are only a few caterpillars that eat milkweed, and this is because the milkweed plant has poisonous, milky sap that it uses to protect itself from things that eat its leaves.

But some insects have evolved to deal with the poison. The most famous of these is the monarch butterfly, scientific name Danaus plexippus. The brightly striped caterpillar of the monarch butterfly eats only milkweed. Sometimes the caterpillar will chew through the main vein of a leaf so there's not as much toxic sap in the part it wants to eat -- apparently evolution is not completely through! There is another kind of caterpillar that eats milkweed.

It's a brightly colored, furry orange and black species that turns into a pretty grey moth -- the milkweed tiger moth. There's only one kind of caterpillar that turns into the monarch butterfly, one of the most beautiful and recognizable of all North American insects. The caterpillar of the monarch eats only milkweed species, and the toxic sap from the milkweed is thought to make the caterpillar and butterfly taste bad to predators. There are a few caterpillars that eat rose, and a couple of the most common ones also sting -- unusual in the caterpillar world.

One of them is the io moth, a beautiful species. The caterpillar is green with a red and white line down its side and lots of sharp branched spines. Touch these, and you'll think you've been stung by a bee! The other is known as the "stinging rose caterpillar.

Caterpillars, like all insects, have an exoskeleton. This means that they have no inner support; it's all supplied by a tough but flexible outer shell. When the insect eats, it grows, and the exoskeleton gets tight. In order to get bigger, the insect has to wriggle out of its old skin to reveal a new one underneath.

This new skin is flexible enough to allow the caterpillar to grow larger -- until it reaches the end of the exoskeleton's flexibility, and needs to shed again. At the end of the metamorphosis process, the adult moth or butterfly emerges, and of course it too has an exoskeleton. Leaving aside the fact that judgements like "bad" and "good" don't apply to caterpillars, which are insentient beings with no moral code, it's true that there are some that are more of a pain to humans than others.

Gypsy moth caterpillars, for example, eat a wide variety of trees and can occur in huge numbers, enough to destroy an entire forest. Cabbage white butterfly caterpillars are another persistent pest, on garden plants. There are very few butterfly pest species -- most of them are moths. No caterpillars are disease vectors, or any real kind of threat to humans. In a way, they're all "good"! Look at it this way: Every feature on a caterpillar, from color to shape to "decorations," have evolved over millions of years to help the animal survive and avoid predators.

Being hairy is a common strategy among caterpillars more commonly moth species than butterfly species for a number of reasons. One of them is to make it hard for little parasitic wasps and flies to land on the caterpillar and lay their eggs. Another is to make the caterpillar a nasty mouth-full for birds, lizards, and other predators. This green caterpillar is perfectly camouflaged on its food plant. The answer to this question goes to a basic need of almost all caterpillars: the need to not be seen by predators.

Since they live on plants and eat leaves, caterpillars live in a world of green. It gives them an advantage, from an evolutionary point of view, to blend in with their surroundings. Caterpillars, then, are green because if they were bright orange or blue, predators would have no trouble finding them on their food plant. Surprisingly, the answer is "yes.

One theory is that they have evolved to limit their own populations when resources are scarce. Eating the surplus population cuts down on competition and provides the survivors with a tasty, nutritious lunch.

One of these species is the cinnabar moth, a beautiful insect that you would never suspect is capable of eating its fellow-caterpillar. Another is the zebra swallowtail butterfly, also a beautiful species. The answer here here is "yes," but only if it's a species that already eats lettuce. Both moth and butterfly caterpillars can be very picky about the leaves they eat, and very few will actually eat lettuce that you buy at the grocery store.

If you found a cateprillar and want to feed it, try a handful of every plant and leaf from the vicinity where you found it. There's a chance that it will eat one of these. Not usually.

The vast majority of caterpillars stay in their trees and plants and eat a few leaves without bothering anybody. Once in a while, a few species can get out of hand and due real damage to your garden plants. If this happens, I suggest using diatomaceous earth, which is a completely natural and non-toxic way of controlling insect pests.

Gypsy moth caterpillars can defoliate entire trees. Very few caterpillars eat aphids. The only common species is a butterfly called the harvester, a very pretty orange-and-black butterfly about an inch across.

The caterpillars live on plants where there are aphids, and eat them. This is an excellent source of protein, and the caterpillars grow very quickly. Ladybugs, on the other hand, are voracious aphid-eaters. There is a kind of moth that lives in Hawaii that has evolved to be a predator. It has sharp legs and snatches up flies and other unsuspecting insects. It's one of the more amazing caterpillars on the planet.

Are the caterpillars in your garden toxic? Do they sting? For example, a monarch butterfly egg is the size of a pinhead and the caterpillar that hatches from this tiny egg isn't much bigger.

But it will grow up to 2 inches long in several weeks. When the caterpillar is full grown and stops eating, it becomes a pupa. The pupa of butterflies is also called a chrysalis. Depending on the species, the pupa may suspended under a branch, hidden in leaves or buried underground.

The pupa of many moths is protected inside a coccoon of silk. This stage can last from a few weeks, a month or even longer. Some species have a pupal stage that lasts for two years. It may look like nothing is going on but big changes are happening inside. Special cells that were present in the larva are now growing rapidly. They will become the legs, wings, eyes and other parts of the adult butterfly.

Many of the original larva cells will provide energy for these growing adult cells. The adult stage is what most people think of when they think of butterflies. They look very different from the larva. The caterpillar has a few tiny eyes, stubby legs and very short antennae. The adults have long legs, long antennae, and compound eyes.

They can also fly by using their large and colorful wings. While most pupa last weeks or a few months, some lepidopterans -- among them the hickory horned devil Citheronia regalis -- remain in their pupal state for a long period of time. These very large caterpillars normally pupate for 11 months, but some individuals hold off final metamorphosis for up to two years. As a broad principle, the geographic latitude of a given moth or butterfly determines the length of the creature's life.

Moving toward the equator, butterflies and moths obtain their resources more quickly. This speeds the lepidopterans life cycles and reproductive frequency. Most temperate zone species produce one or two generations per year. In the tropics, where food and warmth are plentiful year-round, butterflies and moths may produce several generations per year, thanks to their accelerated life cycles. By using the site, you agree to the uses of cookies and other technology as outlined in our Policy, and to our Terms of Use.

Lepidopteran Life Cycle Moths and butterflies -- collectively referred to as lepidopterans -- demonstrate a life cycle called complete metamorphosis. Length of the Larval Stage Most butterfly and moth larvae complete metamorphosis in a few months; a few, like the painted lady Vanessa cardui complete the transition in as little as four weeks.

Length of the Pupal Stage The pupal stage affords protection while the animal undergoes its second transformation.