The Caterpillar or Larva Stage

A caterpillar has six pairs of eyes (called stemmata or ocelli), a mouth, six real legs on its thorax and three to six pairs of prolegs (false legs) on their abdomen.

Caterpillars spend their whole life eating and growing. If you listen closely in The Butterfly House you will probably hear them munching. The first thing a caterpillar eats is its eggshell and then starts to eat the leaves of its host plant. As the caterpillar grows it sheds its skins four or five times called instars. Caterpillars eat approximately eight times their body mass each day.

The caterpillar spins a silk thread as it moves to help keep it attached to the leaves. After a few weeks the caterpillar spins a silk "button" on the underside of a leaf, attaches itself to this with fine hooks and hangs head down in a "J" shape.

The pupa is formed in the body of the caterpillar. The caterpillar's skin splits and exposes the pupa.