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Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet

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Butterfly Life Cycle Worksheet

A hardware store is helping set up a small insect observation station. Read the notes, then solve the life-cycle challenges. Remember: a butterfly changes through four stages.

Read the observation notes

Tui and Kahu are preparing an insect observation station at a hardware store. They read these notes: A butterfly lays eggs, often on a plant that its caterpillar can eat. A caterpillar hatches from an egg and eats leaves as it grows. It then forms a chrysalis. Inside the chrysalis, its body changes. An adult butterfly emerges, feeds on nectar and may lay eggs. The four stages are egg, caterpillar (larva), chrysalis (pupa) and adult butterfly. The adult is not simply a bigger caterpillar: it has wings and a different body shape.

1.Which stage does a butterfly life cycle begin with?

Egg
Caterpillar
Chrysalis
Adult butterfly

2.Write the numbers 1–4 beside these stages, starting with the first stage: adult butterfly, chrysalis, egg, caterpillar.

3.Match each life-cycle stage to its description.

Egg
Caterpillar (larva)
Chrysalis (pupa)
Adult butterfly

Body changes inside
Rests on a plant before hatching
Eats leaves and grows
Flies, feeds on nectar and may lay eggs

4.Why might a butterfly lay its eggs on a plant?

The hatching caterpillar can find leaves to eat
The eggs need to fly away
The plant turns into a chrysalis

5.A caterpillar becomes an adult butterfly by simply growing larger, without changing form.

TrueFalse

6.An adult butterfly lays , which hatch into caterpillars.

7.What happens to the caterpillar while it is inside the chrysalis?

8.Write each clue under the stage it describes: eats leaves; rests before hatching; has wings and can fly; changes inside a chrysalis. Use egg, caterpillar, chrysalis or adult butterfly.

9.Kahu sees an insect emerge from a chrysalis. What stage is it now, and name one thing it may do as an adult.

10.Draw the four stages in order and add arrows to show the cycle continuing. Label each stage egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and adult butterfly.