Ant Life Cycle

Ants undergo complete metamorphosis, passing through a sequence of four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

An ant’s life begins as an egg. Ant eggs are soft, oval, and tiny – about the size of a period at the end of a sentence. Not all eggs are destined to become adults – some are eaten by nestmates for extra nourishment.

An egg hatches into a worm-shaped larva with no eyes or legs. Larvae are eating machines that rely on adults to provide a constant supply of food. As a result, they grow rapidly, molting between sizes.

When a larva is large enough, it metamorphoses into a pupa. This is a stage of rest and reorganization. Pupae look more like adults, but their legs and antennae are folded against their bodies. They start out whitish and gradually become darker. The pupae of some species spin a cocoon for protection, while others remain uncovered, or naked.

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Grasshopper Life Cycle

There are three stages in the grasshopper life cycle — the egg, nymph, and adult. The female lays the eggs in the soil and surrounds the eggs with a frothy liquid that hardens to form a protective structure or “pod”. Typically, a female grasshopper will lay about 100 eggs during the summer and fall. Egg pods are deposited in the upper few inches of soil in grassy areas of uncultivated land such as roadsides, field margins, and pastures. A long, warm autumn favors better nutrition and increased egg-laying by grasshoppers.

Winter is spent in the egg stage. Hatching time is influenced by temperature, with earlier hatching occurring after a warm spring.

Tiny grasshopper nymphs hatch from eggs in the spring and early summer. The egg hatch for a single species may extend over a month or more. Nymphs resemble wingless adults and develop (molt) through five or six stages (instars). After each instar, they shed their cuticle (skin) and grow larger. Nymphs must start feeding within one day after egg hatch and usually feed on the same plants as the adult.

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Bee Life Cycle

Honey bees develop in four distinct life cycle phases: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The total development time varies a bit among the three castes of bees, but the basic miraculous process is the same: 24 days for drones, 21 days for worker bees, and 16 days for queens.

Honey bees as eggs

The honey bee metamorphosis begins when the queen lays an egg. You should know how to spot eggs, because that is one of the most basic and important skills you need to develop as a beekeeper. It isn’t an easy task, because the eggs are mighty tiny (only about 1.7 millimeters long). But finding eggs is one of the surest ways to confirm that your queen is alive and well. It’s a skill you’ll use just about every time you visit your hive.

The queen lays a single egg in each cell that has been cleaned and prepared by the workers to raise new brood. The cell must be spotless, or she moves on to another one.

If she chooses a standard worker-size cell, she releases a fertilized egg into the cell. That egg develops into a worker bee (female). But if she chooses a wider drone-size cell, the queen releases a nonfertilized egg. That egg develops into a drone bee (male). The workers that build the cells are the ones that regulate the ratio of female worker bees to male drone bees. They do this by building smaller cells for female worker bees, and larger cells for male drone bees.

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Butterfly Life Cycle

The butterfly and moth develop through a process called metamorphosis. This is a Greek word that means transformation or change in shape.

Insects have two common types of metamorphosis. Grasshoppers, crickets, dragonflies, and cockroaches have incomplete metamorphosis. The young (called a nymph) usually look like small adults but without the wings.

Butterflies, moths, beetles, flies and bees have complete metamorphosis. The young (called a larva instead of a nymph) is very different from the adults. It also usually eats different types of food.

There are four stages in the metamorphosis of butterflies and moths: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

Egg

Eggs are laid on plants by the adult female butterfly. These plants will then become the food for the hatching caterpillars.

Eggs can be laid from spring, summer or fall. This depends on the species of butterfly. Females lay a lot of eggs at once so that at least some of them survive.

 Butterfly eggs can be very small.

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