Life cycle of the monarch butterfly – introduction

A diagram of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly showing all the stages and transitions: egg, hatching, caterpillar (larva), pupating, chrysalis (pupa), elcosing (emerging), butterfly (adult), and mating and laying eggs. (20 dpi)

As humans grow from babies to adults, we look very similar in shape and anatomy (body parts) throughout our lives. Our arms and legs get longer, we grow taller, our faces become more oval than round, and so on, but we are still recognisably human. This is similarly so for other mammals (animals that feed […]

Life cycle of the monarch – laying

A female monarch butterfly (partly obscured) laying an egg on the underside of a swan plant leaf.

The female monarch butterfly lays her eggs on the leaves and stems of milkweed plants, such as the swan plant. The swan plant is the main type of milkweed that we have in New Zealand, and this is what monarch caterpillars eat. In America and other places around the world, the caterpillars eat other types […]

Life cycle of the monarch – the egg

Two monarch butterfly eggs on the stem of a swan plant, in close-up so that details on the surface of the eggs and plant are visible.

A monarch egg is creamy-white and tiny – about the size of the tip of a pencil. This makes the eggs hard to see on the plant, but you can find them if you look closely. A tiny caterpillar grows inside the egg until it takes up all the space in the shell. In New […]

Life cycle of the monarch – hatching from the egg

A tiny caterpillar of the monarch butterfly hatching from its egg on a leaf, with a black head and a hair- (setae) covered grey body.

When it is ready to hatch, the tiny caterpillar starts to eats its way out of the egg. Once it has made a hole big enough, it crawls out onto the leaf. The newly hatched caterpillar will often first eat the rest of the egg shell, as it contains nutrients that will help it grow. […]