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The oldest butterfly fossils have been dated to the Paleocene, about 56 million years ago, though molecular evidence suggests that they likely originated in the Cretaceous. [1] Butterflies have a four-stage life cycle, and like other holometabolous insects they undergo complete metamorphosis. [2]
A dragonfly in its final moult, undergoing metamorphosis, it begins transforming from its nymph form to an adult. Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. [1]
The scales on butterfly wings are pigmented with melanins that can produce the colours black and brown. The white colour in the butterfly family Pieridae is a derivative of uric acid, an excretory product. [13] [40]: 84 Bright blues, greens, reds, and iridescence are usually created not by pigments but through the microstructure of the scales.
The life cycle of the monarch butterfly. Like all Lepidoptera, monarchs undergo complete metamorphosis; their life cycle has four phases: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Monarchs transition from eggs to adults during warm summer temperatures in as little as 25 days, extending to as many as seven weeks during cool spring conditions.
The adult butterfly emerges (ecloses) from this and expands its wings by pumping haemolymph into the wing veins. [13] Although this sudden and rapid change from pupa to imago is often called metamorphosis, metamorphosis is really the whole series of changes that an insect undergoes from egg to adult.
This butterfly undergoes metamorphosis from larva to butterfly. The larva eats plant leaves before spinning a chrysalis. Flower nectar, which is available later in the year, is used by the butterfly. A recent study also discovered that during transformation, the butterfly substantially reduces its body weight and body fat. [6]
The Western population of the monarch butterfly hit a near-record low with fewer than 10,000 found ... which probably slowed butterfly breeding and the metamorphosis of caterpillars into ...
Once the butterfly completes its metamorphosis, it has a number of defensive mechanisms in place to avoid predation. One of the most easily identifiable traits is the bright eyespots found on the wings. These eyespots are essentially concentric circle of a wide variety of colours.