Butterfly Life Cycle Learning Resource
Key Stage 1 & 2
An introduction to animal classification with focus on the
lifecycle of a butterfly and anatomy
Including ideas to enhance learning about lifecycles, habitat and
minibeasts whilst schooling from home
Written by Harriet Nelson
Education Officer
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Index
Butterfly Life Cycle 3
Butterfly Behaviour 6
Butterfly & Caterpillar Anatomy 11
Rainforest 13
Minibeasts 15
Why does Stratford Butterfly Farm exist? 17
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Butterfly Life Cycle
A butterfly is an insect and its life cycle has more stages than that of a mammal.
The offspring of a mammal is essentially a smaller version of its adult form. This
is not the case with a butterfly. It has a highly complex and very interesting
lifecycle.
During its lifecycle a butterfly transforms from egg to larva to pupa and
eventually into adult butterfly. This transformation is called complete
metamorphosis.
Some insects, such as stick insects, simply hatch from an egg to a nymph, miss
out the pupa stage and eventually shed their last nymph skin to become an adult
form. This is known as incomplete metamorphosis.
The butterfly’s life cycle is described in more detail below.
The example used in this description is a Tree Nymph, a tropical
butterfly that can be seen within the flight area at Stratford Butterfly
Farm.
1. The butterfly starts life as an egg, laid by a female butterfly. The egg is
usually laid on the underside of a leaf, specifically the food plant of the
larva.
Idea leuconoe
Tree Nymph Butterfly
EGG
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2. The larval form is more commonly known as a caterpillar. The caterpillar
looks very different to the adult form. The caterpillar eats from its specific
food plant until it is ready to pupate. During this time, the caterpillar will
go through various instars, stages of growth, and will shed its skin at each
stage.
Idea leuconoe
Tree Nymph Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
3. The caterpillar will then attach itself to a surface using a small pad of silk
and sheds its skin to form a pupa. Butterfly pupa are often known as
chrysalis. Certain species of moths, known as silk moths, can form an
extra layer of protection called a cocoon. The word cocoon should never
be referred to when discussing butterflies, as butterflies do not have a
cocoon.
Idea leuconoe
Tree Nymph Butterfly
PUPA
4. Inside the pupa, dramatic changes take place. The body of the caterpillar
breaks down into a thick and usually green liquid. The clusters of cells
regroup and reform into the adult form of a butterfly. This is
metamorphosis.
5. When the butterfly is ready to emerge, it breaks free from its pupa. A
newly hatched butterfly will be wet and small in comparison to its finished
state. The butterfly uses a liquid that forms in the abdomen to pump up
the wings, it will then hang until the wings are dry.
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6. Once the butterfly is dry they are ready to fly. The primary aim for a
butterfly is to mate and therefore produce offspring. Once the female has
been mated she will then lay her eggs and the process begins all over
again!
Idea leuconoe
Tree Nymph Butterfly
BUTTERFLY
Lesson Plan Idea
Draw and label the life cycle of a butterfly. Make it as colourful and detailed as
you want. You could choose a specific butterfly, like the Painted Lady or one that
you have seen yourself.
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Butterfly Behaviour
Most insects have a very high protein content and are therefore a staple diet
item for many animals. During each life stage the butterfly can adapt and defend
themselves in many ways.
Egg
The life of a butterfly is a difficult one and the percentages of butterflies who
reach the adult stage is commonly around 3% In the wild.
The female butterfly has developed clever ways to improve the chances of her
offspring surviving to the adult stage. One of the ways is to lay many eggs, the
more eggs a female lay, the higher the chance of survival. Some butterflies will
lay an individual egg on one leaf. This can be beneficial in two ways; if a butterfly
laid all her eggs on one leaf and that leaf became damaged, she would lose all
her offspring. If she distributes her eggs, it is more likely some will survive, and
each caterpillar has their own leaf to eat. The female can also choose to lay her
eggs on the underside of a leaf in order to hide the egg from predators and
protect them from adverse weather.
Caligo memnon
Owl Butterfly
EGG & CATERPILLAR
Larva / Caterpillar
The caterpillar can defend itself in many ways:
• Camouflage - Many animals use camouflage to hide in their surroundings
in the hope that a predator will not spot them! Some even camouflage to
look like bird poo during their early instars - see below.
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Greta oto Papilio
demodocus
Glass wing
Butterfly Christmas
Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
CATERPILLAR
Left-3rd instar
Right-4th instar
• Smell - Some caterpillars smell horrible enough to put off even the
hungriest of birds. The blue morpho caterpillar lets off a nasty odour when
disturbed. Swallowtail caterpillars have a special forked organ,
osmeterium, that comes out of the back of their necks when they are
disturbed. The osmeterium smells terrible and also has the appearance of
a snakes tongue.
Papilio demodocus
Christmas Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
• Spines - Some caterpillars have sharp spines all over their bodies so that
birds and other predators will not try to eat them. These spines can also
act as an irritant, designed to distract predators.
Heliconius charitonius
Zebra Long Wing Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
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• Bright colours - Most bright colours in nature are a warning of something
quite nasty. In the case of caterpillars, bright colours often advertise bad
taste or even poison.
Morpho peleides
Blue Morpho Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
• Anatomy – Some caterpillars will also try to make their back end look the
same as their front end. A predator will always try and attack the head of
an animal. If the predator gave a caterpillar a nip on the wrong end, it may
very well survive.
Idea leuconoe
Tree Nymph Butterfly
CATERPILLAR
• Mimicry - To mimic something means to copy it. There are lots of
caterpillars and butterflies that are not poisonous, spiky, bad tasting or
smelling but copy the colour markings and shape of others that are. They
are then safe from predators because they are thought to be bad to eat.
Mimicry is a strategy that lots of animals and even plants use to avoid
predation. There are some caterpillars that even mimic snakes to try and
defend themselves from predators!
Hermeroplanes triptolemus
Hawk Moth
CATERPILLAR
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Pupa
• Camouflage – Pupa has no form of defence, so caterpillars will also ensure
their pupa can hide in their surroundings. Some caterpillars can choose
what colour their pupa will be in order to truly camouflage themselves.
Papilio Lowi
Morpho peleides
Great Yellow
Blue Morpho
Mormon
Butterfly
Brown PUPA
PUPA
formed on a twig
Green PUPA
formed under a
leaf
• Bright colours - Caterpillars will also advertise their bad taste or
poison in their pupa stage by displaying bright colours.
Idea leuconoe Tithorea harmonia
Tree Nymph Harmonia Tiger Wing
Butterfly Butterfly
PUPA PUPA
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Butterfly
• Camouflage – Butterflies will also camouflage in order to hide from their
predators. The Indian Leaf butterfly disguises itself as a dried leaf!
Kallima paralekta
Indian Leaf
Butterfly
BUTTERFLY
• Mimicry – Butterflies themselves can also use mimicry to hide from
predators. Some butterflies mimic other animals. The owl butterflies wing
mimic the head of an anole which is a type of lizard.
Caligo
memnon
Owl
Butterfly
BUTTERFLY
Learning Idea
Design your own caterpillar and pupa. This can link to an art project, by making
a collage and thinking about texture and colours. You could make the caterpillar
and pupa look poisonous or as if they are trying to hide.
Keep a look out for caterpillars when you are out walking and decide if the
caterpillars you see are poisonous or not!
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Butterfly & Caterpillar Anatomy
Butterfly Anatomy
Insects are invertebrates with identifiable features. Invertebrates are animals
that don’t have a backbone or bony skeleton.
Insects have three parts to their body and three pairs of legs. This is an easy
way of deciding if an animal is an insect.
The head holds most of the sensory
organs including compound eyes and
mouth parts. Different insects have
different mouthparts depending on
what type of food they eat. Butterflies
use their proboscis to drink nectar
from flowers or the juice from rotting
fruits. They use their antennae to
smell their food and they taste
through their feet!
The thorax is the part of the body which is connected to the wings and legs.
The wings are used for flight and the legs used for walking. Remember a
butterfly is an insect, so it will have six legs. In flight butterflies appear to have
two wings, one on each side, but they actually have four wings. The upper side
and the underside of the wings can often be very different. Many butterflies
tend to have a well camouflaged underside, so when they sit and their wings are
closed they can hide into their surroundings. The bright colours are usually seen
on the upper side.
The abdomen holds the stomach and reproductive organs. They also have
spiracles, tiny openings along the sides. These spiracles are linked to air tubes
that allow oxygen to be carried throughout the insects’ body. The abdomen is
around two thirds of their length, a butterfly’s abdomen is usually very long and
thin. When the butterfly has just hatched it is full of a liquid which is used to
pump up the wings.
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Caterpillar Anatomy
The head has ocelli, basic eyes which can sense light and dark, and mouth
parts to eat leaves.
The thorax is full of muscles and has six true legs.
The abdomen is the largest part of the body, there are four pairs of prolegs
which help the caterpillar when travelling. Spiracles, tiny openings, can be found
along the body which help the caterpillar to breathe. A pair of claspers, at the
end of the body are used to help the caterpillar hold on when climbing and
pupating.
Learning Idea
Pick five invertebrates and draw them from memory, it could be a spider, bee,
butterfly, caterpillar, millipede or a crab. Compare them to each other by writing
underneath each picture how many legs they have, if they have wings or not, or
are they brightly coloured. Decide if the invertebrate is an insect or not an insect.
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Rainforest
Stratford Butterfly Farm is home to hundreds of tropical butterflies and the
green houses they live in have been specifically designed to mimic their natural
rainforest habitat. The ideal temperature in the farm is 26 degrees and
around 80% humidity which makes it feel just like a tropical rainforest!
Rainforests are home to just over 50% of the species in the world. Rainforests
are split into four different layers. Each of these layers is a very different
environment. Each different environment creates a specific habitat for a large
variety of plants and animals.
The differences in the layers include
• Climate
• Temperature
• Amount of sunlight
• Humidity
• Flora and Fauna
Below is a breakdown of each layer of the rainforest.
Emergent Layer
The trees are taller than any other trees in the rainforest and can reach 60m.
The emergent layer gets most of the sunlight and can be quite windy sometimes.
Emergent trees are very top heavy and have almost no side branches below the
canopy. Many birds, some monkeys and insects such as tropical butterflies live
in the emergent layer.
Canopy Layer
The trees in the canopy interweave and are covered by vines and creepers to
make a very thick cover which is generally 18 – 40m above the ground. The thick
branches and leaves block sunlight and rainfall to the lower levels. Most birds,
insects, arachnids, reptiles and mammals live in this leafy environment. More
than half the animals living in the rainforest live in this canopy layer.
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Understory Layer
A dark cool environment that gets little sunlight and therefore has limited plant
life. There are usually short, green, leafy shrubs, mostly non-flowering, small
trees, ferns and vines. Animals that prefer the wet and the shade, like insects
and amphibians live in the understory layer.
Forest Floor
This level has the highest humidity level of the Rainforest. There is no grass here
and the soil is hidden by a thin layer of rapidly rotting leaves, twigs and dead
flowers. The work of decomposing this litter layer is carried out by plants, fungi
and animals such as ants, millipedes, and cockroaches.
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Learning Idea
Research a variety of animals that would be found in a tropical rainforest.
E.g. types of birds, insects and mammals. Draw the animal and describe its
behaviour, social system, diet and habitat.
Decide which layer that animal would live in. Some animals can live in more than
one layer. Why do you think the animals may choose to move through the
layers?
You could draw or paint your own rainforest with all the layers and stick the
animals in the correct layer.
Minibeasts
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are animals without backbones such as snails, millipedes, insects
and crustaceans. 97% of the creatures on earth are invertebrates. Arthropods
are the largest group of invertebrates. They have a hard skeleton on the outside
of their bodies, like plates of armour, called an exoskeleton. The word ‘exo’
means outside. This strong armour is made of chitin which is a similar material
to your fingernails and hair. The largest group of arthropods are the insects and
there are more kinds of insects than all other types of animals put together.
Reptiles
A reptile is a cold-blooded vertebrate, this class of animals includes; snakes,
lizards, crocodiles, alligators, tortoises and turtles. They are usually
distinguishable by having dry scaled skin and typically lay soft-shelled eggs on
land. A cold-blooded animal cannot control their own body temperature and can
only be the temperature of the air around them. Reptiles are known for using
less energy than other types of animals and commonly catch prey by a ‘wait and
strike’ method rather than a ‘chase’ method often seen in a mammal hunt.
Most reptiles are carnivorous although many lizards are omnivores and all
tortoises are herbivores.
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Amphibians
Amphibians are also a type of vertebrate, they commonly live in or around
water. Within this group there are; frogs, toads, salamanders and newts.
Although amphibians are similar to reptiles in many ways, there are a few main
differences between the two groups. Amphibians go through a larval stage, for
example the frog starts life from an egg – tadpole – froglet – frog. The word
amphibian means two lives; one in the water the other on land. This refers to
the metamorphosis that it undertakes. During their larval stage amphibians
have gills which aid them to breathe under water. Later, their bodies change,
growing legs and lungs enabling them to live on the land. Amphibians are also
cold-blooded animals; however, they tend to have thin and moist skin rather
than scales. This skin type helps them to take in more oxygen.
Fish
All fish are gill bearing aquatic vertebrates, there are many different types of
fish that live in a variety of bodies of water. All fish lack limbs and digits but
propel themselves through the water with fins. Fish are mainly scaled, cold
blooded animals.
Learning Idea
Make you own Minibeast out of recycled materials such as egg boxes, toilet roll
holders and plastic bottles. Choose how many legs your minibeast has, if it has
wings or any other characteristic you can think of. Paint it in either bright or
camouflaged colours. Let your imagination run wild!
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Why does Stratford Butterfly Farm exist?
Stratford Butterfly Farm is not only a beautiful place filled with colour and
delight, it also has several important purposes:
Education
By visiting Stratford Butterfly Farm both as a school group or a member of the
public you will learn about many different animals, their behaviours and their
habitats. As you step through the doors, you will be transported to a beautiful
Central American rainforest and experience the climate, humidity, dense plant
life and discover the Maya, an ancient civilisation that lived in the rainforest
1500 years ago.
Research
Stratford Butterfly Farm both encourages and helps to fund many different
research projects. This ranges from; allowing a student to collect data for their
dissertation projects at the farm, or staff members researching our native
butterflies as well as helping to fund research in the decline of tropical
butterflies worldwide.
Conservation
Stratford Butterfly Farm both owns and has connections with butterfly farms
across the world. In order to import pupae, we help to conserve areas of land
which increase butterfly breeding. Although our focus is on butterfly breeding,
by conserving that area of land we are conserving an entire ecosystem for all
other animals living in that area.
Employment
As well as the employees at Stratford Butterfly Farm, we employ local people in
Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. This wage creates a sustainable
income for families in deprived parts of the world. We also have a volunteer and
work experience programme to help encourage all ages to be involved with the
Butterfly Farm.
Rainforests
Rainforests are very special places. There are 3 major rainforest regions in the
world. Rainforests cover 31% of the land area on our planet and are thought to
hold just over 50% of the total world species. Around 1.6 billion people rely on
the benefits rainforests offer, including food, fresh water, clothing, traditional
medicine and shelter. Unfortunately, 46-58 thousand square miles of forest are
lost each year due to deforestation, that is the equivalent to 48 football fields
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every minute! It is therefore absolutely vital that we help to conserve what we
have left of our rainforests.
Enjoyment
Lastly, thousands of people come to visit us each year, simply to enjoy
themselves, appreciate the variety of sizes and colours and to experience
watching tropical butterflies fly without having to travel across the world!
Many spend hours watching the leafcutter ants make their delicate journey over
ropes to get to fresh leaves, meticulously cut a piece and wander back to their
home, eagerly awaiting delicious fungus to eat. The most patient of visitors can
watch a caterpillar change into a pupa, readying itself for a beautiful and
fascinating journey. Stand in awe to see a butterfly hatch from its pupa within
the Emerging Case. Soak in the beautiful heat and get away from everyday life!
Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly Farm, Swans Nest Lane, Stratford-Upon-Avon, Warwickshire, CV37 7LS
Tel: 01789 299 288
Email: schools@[Link] Website: [Link]
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