Many insects in the process of growth strongly change their appearance, and such changes are called metamorphosis. For example, butterflies go through three stages before becoming so beautiful, on each of which they change their color, size and appearance.
Adult butterflies lay eggs on those plants, which then serve as food for the larvae – small hatched caterpillars.
Young caterpillars eat a lot and grow very fast – so quickly that they even burst their skin, which can not stretch!
However, under the old skin they have already formed a new – more spacious. When the caterpillar parted from the penultimate shell, it weaves itself a hard cocoon – so the caterpillar becomes a pupa.
Inside the cocoon, the body of the caterpillar turns into a mushy mass, from which the butterfly gradually forms. When the hard shell of the pupa bursts, the butterfly comes out of it and rests a little. Her soft wrinkled wings quickly dry out in the sun and straighten out. Despite the fact that caterpillars are terrible gluttons, butterflies, on the contrary, eat very little (and there are some who do not eat at all!).
