Book 4, Question 31
Why Do Butterflies Start as Caterpillars?
A butterfly is one animal with two jobs. The caterpillar is the eating machine, and the adult is the flying, mating, nectar-sipping machine. In between, the body is rebuilt in a change called metamorphosis.
From the book
Page from A Million Whys Book 4
More fun facts
- A crawling, leaf-munching caterpillar can turn into a flying, nectar-sipping butterfly in just a few weeks.
- Caterpillars eat nutrient-rich leaves to power that big change. Butterflies mostly just need to sip sugary nectar.
- Even inside its egg, a caterpillar grows tiny clusters of cells that will later become the butterfly's eyes, wings and legs.
- Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed, which makes the butterflies poisonous to predators.
- Scientists used 3D scans to watch caterpillars change inside their cases.
- In 1669, biologist Jan Swammerdam showed that a caterpillar and a butterfly are the same animal, not two different ones.
Sources: Science News Explores, Scientific American, National Geographic, National Geographic Kids, National Geographic, Scientific American
Questions kids ask
Why does a butterfly start as a caterpillar?
The caterpillar's job is to eat and grow. Then it changes into a butterfly that can fly and find a mate.