Mary Holland posted: " Monarchs, like other butterflies and moths, undergo complete metamorphosis -- they have an egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult stage. During a monarch's larval stage it eats almost constantly, pausing only to shed its skin. The" Naturally Curious with Mary Holland
Monarchs, like other butterflies and moths, undergo complete metamorphosis -- they have an egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult stage. During a monarch's larval stage it eats almost constantly, pausing only to shed its skin. The period between each shedding of the skin, or molt, is called an instar. Monarchs have five larval instars and during their larval stage grow to almost 2,000 times their original mass.
The first meal a monarch larva has is its eggshell and it quickly moves on to milkweed leaf hairs. Soon thereafter it begins to eat the leaf in earnest, often making an arc-shaped cutting.
During this first instar, which typically lasts one to three days, the larva's appearance changes considerably. When it hatches, the monarch larva is pale green or grayish-white, shiny, and almost translucent. It has no stripes or other markings. It's about 2 mm long, with front tentacles appearing as tiny little bumps. Its back tentacles are barely visible. By the end of the first instar it begins to have a pattern of black (or dark brown), yellow and white bands, and the 6mm-long body no longer looks transparent and shiny.
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