Pearl Bordered Fritillery Butterfly
Unlike many insects, butterflies do not experience a nymph period, but instead go through a pupal stage which lies between the larva and the adult stage Egg Larva, known as a caterpillar Pupa (chrysalis) Adult butterfly (imago) Butterfly eggs consist of a hard-ridged outer layer of shell, called the chorion. This is lined with a thin coating of wax which prevents the egg from drying out before the larva has had time to fully develop. Each egg contains a number of tiny funnel-shaped openings at one end, called micropyles; the purpose of these holes is to allow sperm to enter and fertilize the egg. Butterfly and moth eggs vary greatly in size between species, but they are all either spherical or ovate. Butterfly eggs are fixed to a leaf with a special glue which hardens rapidly. As it hardens it contracts deforming the shape of the egg. This glue is easily seen surrounding the base of every egg forming a meniscus. The nature of the glue is unknown, and is a suitable subject for research. The same glue is produced by a pupa to secure the setae of the cremaster. This glue is so hard that the silk pad, to which the setae are glued, cannot be separated. Caterpillars Larvae, or caterpillars, are multi-legged eating machines. They consume plant leaves and spend practically all of their time in search of food. Caterpillars mature through a series of stages, called instars. Near the end of each instar, the larva undergoes a process called apolysis, in which the cuticle, a mixture of chitin and specialized proteins, is released from the epidermis and the epidermis begins to form a new cuticle beneath. At the end of each instar, the larva moults the old cuticle, and the new cuticle rapidly hardens and pigments. Development of butterfly wing patterns begins by the last larval instar. Wing development in larval stage Last instar wing disk, Junonia coeniaButterflies belong to the specialized and prolific lineage of holometabolous insects, which means that wings or wing pads
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Photo credit: © David Gowans / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: argynnini, boloria, clossiana, colourful, delicate, euphrosyne, family:, feeding, fragile, genus:, heathland, heliconiinae, insect, nymphalidae, papilionoidea, resting, species:, subfamily:, subgenus:, summertime, superfamily:, tribe:
