Butterfly Life Cycle

7 Key excerpts on "Butterfly Life Cycle"

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  eBook - ePub

  Butterfly Biology Systems

  Connections and Interactions in Life History and Behaviour

  • Roger L H Dennis(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • CAB International

    (Publisher)

  A simple order is followed, through stages from egg to adult. A start is made with the suspected balance between size and number of progeny, a scrutiny of the postulated negative correlation between egg size and egg number; the outcome is a cautionary tale for butterfly ecologists and the need to integrate laboratory and fieldwork. This is followed by issues of growth – initiation, cessation, rates, timing and size – including further implications of development, such as brood numbers, diapause (aestivation, hibernation), locale shifting (migration and contrasting investments in the sexes). Whether to live singly or socially (gregariously) has vital ramifications for survival, development, resource use and fecundity; the section here provides a platform for investigation into stage-related aspects of aggregations in Chapter C.4. Another prominent area of life history is in the timing and frequency of matings, leading to sexual selection, both positive and antagonistic. In this chapter we consider the life history implications that lead to aspects of male mate-location behaviour explored in Section D. This is followed by a consideration of trade-offs in investment between larval and adult stages, underlying the relative importance of larval herbivory and adult feeding in different butterfly species. Throughout the life cycle, once eggs have been deposited, individuals are faced with survival. The last section considers the strategies and trade-offs in survival mechanisms of different developmental stages

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  The Complete Insect

  Anatomy, Physiology, Evolution, and Ecology

  • David A. Grimaldi(Author)
  • 2023(Publication Date)
  • Princeton University Press

    (Publisher)

  Embryos undergo various stages of development that are specific to insects (see pages 188–189). Juvenile stage: Insects spend the majority of their life cycles in the juvenile stage, as this is the feeding and growing stage. Depending on the type of metamorphosis, insects have either nymphal stages or larval stages (see pages 204–209). Growth: Growth is a crucial process in an insect life cycle. However, because they possess an external skeleton, insects do not grow organs in the same way that vertebrates do. Overall body size is defined during the juvenile stage, and in holometabolous insects, adult traits are already present inside larvae as imaginal discs (see pages 222–223). Metamorphosis: In all insects, postembryonic development and metamorphosis are major parts of the life cycle. Some insects develop through successive molts with progressive wing growth, while other insects have juvenile stages that are completely different from the adult, and therefore they need to undergo drastic changes during metamorphosis. In a few insect groups, metamorphosis evolved as peculiar variations, largely due to their specific life histories (see pages 196–203). Life cycle adaptation: An insect life cycle is highly adapted to its ecological niche. In some of these habitats, the environmental conditions can change unfavorably, such as changes in seasons. A slowdown or complete stop at any stage of the insect life is therefore necessary to increase survival (see pages 226–227). 173 AN INSECT LIFE CYCLE Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterfly Mating adults Emerging adult Egg laying Developing egg Young Caterpillar Adult Mature Caterpillar Chrysalis (pupa) 174 DEVELOPMENT, METAMORPHOSIS, AND GROWTH Chromosomes Most insects are diploid. Just like humans, the offspring inherits two sets of chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father.

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  The Lives of Butterflies

  A Natural History of Our Planet's Butterfly Life

  • David G. James, David J. Lohman(Authors)
  • 2024(Publication Date)
  • Princeton University Press

    (Publisher)

  194 Phenology is about doing the right things at the right time, especially in relation to the changing seasons. Butterflies fly when the sun shines and temperatures are warm. Phenological differences among species provide a window into how climate and unpredictability shape the lives of butterflies. Phenology: getting the timing right B U T T E R F L Y S E A S O N A L I T Y LIFE HISTORIES The meaning of phenology is neatly summed up by the biblical quote “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The life history of a butterfly—how it develops, survives, and reproduces over time in response to temperature, day length, and season—is an essay in phenology. This is a rich area for natural history study, as the details of the immature lives of even common butterflies are sometimes poorly known. There are many species whose eggs, caterpillars, and pupae have yet to be studied or photographed. The lives of eggs, caterpillars, and pupae and how they determine the phenology of butterflies are still being unraveled. We know quite a lot about well- studied butterfly faunas, such as those of the UK, Europe, and North America, but many details of the life histories of the thousands of tropical butterfly species have not been documented. REGIONAL ADAPTATIONS Butterfly life histories depend on resource availability, including host plant availability and optimal temperatures. Consequently, different climatic regions and vegetation types may produce different phenologies in a single butterfly species. For example, in western North America the Anise Swallowtail (Papilio zelicaon) is widespread, occurring in a variety of habitats, from mountaintops to the coast  The Arctic Blue (Agriades glandon) is an alpine butterfly with just a single generation of adults flying each year. Overwintering as a half-grown caterpillar, some individuals may take two years to reach adulthood.

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  The Exquisite Butterfly Companion

  The Science and Beauty of 100 Butterflies

  • Hazel Davies(Author)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Union Square & Co.

    (Publisher)

  Although it is impossible to see on live, flying moths, the attachment of the hindwing to the forewing is another way to tell moths and butterflies apart. Most moths have a bristle-like structure, called a frenulum, which projects from the base of the hindwing and hooks into the forewing, holding the two wings together during flight. Butterflies do not have a frenulum. Instead, the hindwing base curves out into a humeral lobe, and the wings are not attached, allowing them to move independently.

  The Life Cycle

  During their life cycle, butterflies and moths pass through four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. These stages look nothing like one another, thus this type of cycle is called a complete metamorphosis. Many other insects, such as beetles, bees, and flies, also undergo complete metamorphosis. More primitive insects, such as dragonflies, grasshoppers, and cockroaches, undergo incomplete metamorphosis, passing through just three stages: egg, to nymph, to adult. Here, the nymph and adult stages look alike.

  For Lepidoptera, life begins as a tiny egg from which a caterpillar, or larva, hatches and begins to eat. The larva is basically the growth stage. To grow, the caterpillar molts or sheds its exoskeleton. When an exoskeleton becomes too small, it splits, revealing a new one below. Depending on the species, the caterpillar will go through four or five growth periods, called instars, as it develops. Different species grow at different rates. For some, the larval stage may last only two or four weeks, while for others, it may take years. Duration depends on the species’ diet and whether or not it suspends growth and hibernates as a way to get through the winter.

  Eggs of the Great Southern White (Ascia monuste)

  The first larval meal is often the empty eggshell. The vast majority of caterpillars feed on plant material—either leaves, roots, or stems. A few bore tunnels into tree trunks and feed on the tough wood. Most species are very specific about the food they eat and only feed on one type of plant, which is known as the hostplant. Other species are polyphagous and feed on a variety of different plants. Yet others, like the clothes moths, feed on natural fibers, leaving holes in sweaters, blankets, and carpets. A few species are even carnivorous. Caterpillars of the Harvester butterfly (Feniseca tarquinius

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  The Ecology and Behavior of Amphibians

  • Kentwood D. Wells(Author)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • University of Chicago Press

    (Publisher)

  Much of the research on amphibian life cycles has been devoted to under-standing the proximate determinants of rates of growth and development of larvae, the timing of metamorphosis, and the size of individuals at metamorphosis within populations. Complex Life Cycles and the Ecology of Amphibian Metamorphosis 603 Divergent Approaches to the Study of Amphibian Metamorphosis The process of metamorphosis has been studied both by de-velopmental biologists and ecologists, but these two disci-plines traditionally have approached the problem from very different perspectives, with minimal interaction between these fields. Developmental biologists have been concerned mainly with processes of morphogenesis, the regulation of gene ex-pression, and the hormonal control of development (Etkin 1968; Dodd and Dodd 1976; B. White and Nicoll 1981; H. Fox 1984; Kikuyama et al. 1993; Denver 1996; Kalten-bach 1996; Tata 1996, 2005; C. Rose 1999; Shi 2000). A few representative species, such as Rana catesbeiana, R. pip-iens, Xenopus laevis, and Ambystoma tigrinum, have been used as model systems for understanding development in all amphibians. This work has led to a very detailed under-standing of metamorphosis at the level of genes, cells, and tissues. Generally the process is viewed as an orderly se-quence of steps culminating in the transformation of an aquatic larva into a terrestrial adult, with little attention to environmentally induced variation in larval growth and de-velopment. Several methods have been devised to describe the stages of larval development (see Just, Kraus-Just, and Check 1981 for a review). The staging table for Bufo valli-ceps, shown in fig. 13.3, was developed by Gosner (1960) and is derived from the embryonic staging table of Shumway (1940) and the widely used staging table for Rana pipiens tadpoles published by A.

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  The Natural History of Moths

  • Mark Young, Lyn Wells(Authors)
  • 2010(Publication Date)
  • T & AD Poyser

    (Publisher)

  HAPTER 4 Life Cycles and Hibernation

  WHAT IS A LIFE CYCLE ?

  T HE success of any animal's life is judged by the number of offspring that it produces. Successful individuals place more copies of their genetic material in the next generation than do the unsuccessful; they are favoured by natural selection in the process of evolution. Consequently, the preoccupation of all species, including moths, is to reproduce as freely as possible and the early stages of their lives are merely devices to ensure that the reproductive stage is reached quickly. All of the specialised and intricate structures of the eggs, larvae, pupae and adults are really servants to the eggs and sperm that will combine to form the next generation.

  The life cycle of a moth represents the time-scale for development of the various stages between hatching and final reproduction. The life cycle strategy is the characteristic pattern of development of the species in relation to the external environment, which serves to complete the development effectively. The best solution is not necessarily to mature as soon as possible, for the adult moth may then be very small and will produce relatively few eggs. A larger moth, which will take longer to mature, may also contain more eggs, or the same number of larger eggs, and each species reaches a different compromise between adult size and generation time. Some have short generation times, others lay many eggs. Another compromise is the size of each egg. Large eggs have large food stores and the resultant larvae are better able to establish themselves in the environment; however, a moth can produce only a relatively small number of large eggs. Small eggs result in small and vulnerable larvae but can be carried in large numbers. The Sword-grass (Xylena exsoleta) is a large moth but lays many small eggs; some Hepialidae produce up to 18000 (Thompson and Pellmyr, 1991), whereas the Small Elephant Hawk moth (Deilephila porcellus), which is more or less the same size, lays many fewer (c.

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  Elements Of Entomology

  • H.Lewin Devasahayam(Author)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • NEW INDIA PUBLISHING AGENCY (NIPA)

    (Publisher)

  Development and Metamorphosis Insects generally reproduce by laying eggs or ‘ova’. The initiation of growth inside an egg, which in most cases is preceded by fertilization, leads to a long series of changes, finally attaining the adult stage and in due course to sexual maturity and finally to reproduction of a new generation. This chain of events from the egg stage to death constitutes the ‘life history’ or ‘life cycle’ of an insect. Eggs are laid singly or in batches of only a few or up to hundreds or even thousands. Generally eggs are laid under conditions, where food is available for the feeding of the future young ones. The eggs are generally smooth, elliptical or oval, but some have diverse shapes such as, disc-like, hemispherical, conical, globular, spindle and many other forms. The egg surface may also have a variety of textures. In some aquatic insects, the eggs are covered with a gelatinous secretion, which swells in water forming a jelly-like spawn. In mosquitoes, the lateral sides of the eggs are expanded, which serve as floats. Eggs vary in size, from microscopic to about 3.0 mm. in diameter and 5.0 - 6.0 mm. or even more in length. The development of an insect is a continuous process, but on the basis of external manifestations, it is divided into definite stages. The stage within the egg is termed ‘embryonic development’, that after hatching ‘post-embryonic development’ and the changes of form during the post-embryonic development constitute ‘metamorphosis’. 1. Embryonic development A typical egg is a cell, enclosed in two coverings, the outer that is tough forming the ‘egg shell’ or ‘chorion’ and the inner that is delicate forming the ‘vitellin membrane’. The chorion contains a nucleus and cytoplasm. The cytoplasm consists of two portions, the central area or ‘deutoplasm’ containing mostly yolk and the peripheral area or the ‘cortical layer’ or ‘periplasm’, which is relatively devoid of yolk. Since the eggs are formed and enclosed in the chorion 4 81

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