Butterflies develop with complete transformation, i.e. stages of egg, larva, pupa and adult insect (imago). The life cycle of different species lasts from several weeks to two years. Video stages of development at the end of the article.
Butterfly larvae are called caterpillars. Like adult insects, they have three pairs of legs on the chest, but, in addition, also abdominal "legs". The latter can be up to five pairs, they do not have a segmented buildings and are called pseudopods. see also classification.
Butterfly caterpillars have well-developed jaws, and these creatures are very voracious. Almost everything edible that occurs in nature can serve as food for them: leaves, wood, shoots, roots, fruits and seeds of plants, wax, animal hair.
Most caterpillars lead an open lifestyle, but some (root beetles) live in the ground, while others gnaw passages in the dense wood of tree trunks. Special glands hidden in the head capsule of the caterpillar secrete silk, from which it constructs a cocoon during pupation.
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