HOW MANY EGGS DOES A BUTTERFLY LAY AND HOW LONG IS ITS CYCLE?
When a tropical butterfly emerges from the pupa or chrysalis, it lives for 2 to 3 weeks. It lays 100 eggs or more—as small as the period at the end of a sentence—that look like water droplets. The different kinds of butterflies lay their eggs on specific host plants and in one particular area. After hatching, the larvae feed on the same type of plant.
Host plants include wildflowers and banana plants. The pupal stage lasts ten days. The larva or caterpillar goes through 5 developmental stages, scientifically known as instars, before turning into a pupa. After its third instar, the larva lives to eat, increasing almost 2,700 times in size in just 14 days. If a newly-born kitten weighing 100 grams (approximately 3.5 ounces) were to gain weight at the same rate, it would weigh almost 270 kilograms (595 pounds) at the end of two weeks.
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