Municipal educational institution "Sosnovo-Ozerskaya secondary comprehensive school No. 1"
“How does a butterfly appear?”
(Project “I am a researcher”)
Work by 1st grade student: Liza Loshkareva
Teacher: Dambieva Ayuna Tsydenovna
S. Sosnovo-Ozerskoe
2011
Plan
- Introduction.
- The caterpillar is an important link in the life cycle of a butterfly.
- Doll.
- The appearance of a butterfly.
- Interesting Facts.
- Conclusion.
- Practical work.
- Literature.
1. Introduction.
How beautiful the butterflies are! It is impossible to imagine summer without them. But I have always wondered how an ugly caterpillar is connected to a beautiful butterfly, what a pupa is and why I don’t see it. And that’s why my research topic is called “How do butterflies appear?”
This topic is relevant for me, I draw butterflies, weave them from beads, sculpt them from plasticine. And I want not only to show my crafts and drawings, but to tell my friends and classmates about butterflies.
The purpose of my research: to study the topic of butterflies.
Objectives: 1) Find out all the stages of the appearance of a butterfly; 2) find Interesting Facts about butterflies.
2. Caterpillar - an important link in the life cycle of a butterfly.
Many types of insects change their shape as they develop. This method of development is called metamorphosis. Before becoming an adult insect, each butterfly must go through four stages of its life. At each stage it changes its size, shape, color.All - both day and night butterflies - emerge from eggs, and this is where their life begins.The caterpillar crawling out of the egg is an important link in the life of the butterfly. It is at this stage that growth and accumulation of nutrients occur for the entire life of the insect. As soon as it is born, it begins to feed - it eats the shell of the egg, then takes on the leaves of the plant on which it sits. She absorbs a large number of food for a short time, so it is growing quickly. As the caterpillar grows, it molts and sheds its skin. And so on several times.This is due to the fact that the skin of caterpillars is inelastic.After a “hearty lunch,” the abdomen enlarges, and the caterpillar becomes “cramped” in “old clothes.” It is necessary to change it, and it sheds. The caterpillar looks for a secluded place and attaches its abdomen to the plant with a silk thread. The skin on the front cracks, and finally, the caterpillar crawls out of the old cover in a ready-made, more spacious “new outfit”. Most caterpillars molt 4-5 times. After the last moult, the caterpillar turns into a pupa.
3. Doll.
During the pupal stage, continuous changes (metamorphosis) occur. At this stage of butterfly development, the pupa is the most vulnerable stage. In case of danger, she cannot hide, because she has neither legs nor wings. This is why the most important thing for pupation is to find a safe place. The pupae that are attached to plants are almost indistinguishable in color and shape from leaves and twigs. Many caterpillars, such as the peacock eye, spin cocoons. The caterpillar wraps itself many times with a silk thread several kilometers long, while the rows of threads stick together and form a cover - a cocoon. Only in the cocoon does the caterpillar turn into a pupa. The pupal stage sometimes lasts several days, and sometimes lasts three years, depending on the species of butterfly and external conditions: temperature and humidity.
4. The appearance of a butterfly.Once the metamorphosis is complete, the shell of the pupa bursts and a butterfly emerges. At first, her wings are small, as if curled. But they are elastic. Having been born, the butterfly looks for a suitable place where it could freely spread its wings. Clinging to the empty shell of the pupa or to a branch, it flutters its wings. The wings straighten and finally reach the desired size. The butterfly then dries them for several hours. The wings lose elasticity and become stronger. Now they have gained strength and lightness, and you can make your first flight. Most butterflies emerge from their pupae in the early morning, when it is not yet hot and the air is humid with dew. Straightening and then drying your wings at such a time is much better than at noon when the sun is scorching. As soon as the butterfly becomes capable of flight, it rushes in search of a partner. After mating, the female lays eggs and life cycle repeats itself from the very beginning.
5. Interesting facts.
The pupa is like a safe that protects the insect's body as it changes shape.
- The babies that hatch from insect eggs are called larvae, although people often just call them caterpillars.
- The caterpillar grows so fast that its skin cracks, and under it there is already a brand new skin designed for growth.
- Over the course of her entire life, a female butterfly lays 50,000 eggs.
- The butterfly does not grow, but from time to time it likes to drink sweet flower nectar. This is the fuel that helps it fly.
The ancient Greeks considered the butterfly a symbol of the immortality of the soul. In Christianity, the stages of butterfly development represent life, death and resurrection, which is why the butterfly is sometimes depicted in the hand of the Christ child, symbolizing the rebirth and resurrection of the soul.The butterfly is considered a symbol of the soul in Japan.
6. Conclusion.
As a result of my research, I learned everythingstages of butterfly development:
1. A butterfly lays eggs on plants, which are then eaten by a small caterpillar.
2. The caterpillar eats voraciously and grows very quickly.
3. Each caterpillar makes itself a hard cocoon called a pupa. In it, her body turns into something like a thick soup.
4. The soup slowly turns into a butterfly. When a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, its wings are soft and wrinkled. However, they quickly harden in the sun.
Practical work
- During the labor lesson, the whole class sculpted a caterpillar from plasticine, and then a butterfly.
Question: How is a caterpillar related to a butterfly?
There were different answers: the caterpillar will later become a butterfly, the caterpillar is fat and ugly, etc.
Question: How does a caterpillar turn into a butterfly?
Answers: The caterpillar develops wings and antennae.
Question: Do you know what a butterfly chrysalis is?
Answers: toy, we don’t know.
And then I told all my classmates about the appearance of the butterfly.
- At the lesson on the surrounding world, I told the most interesting things about butterflies and that caterpillars are food for many insects, they should not be destroyed unnecessarily, butterflies make the world beautiful.
- She showed an exhibition of crafts made from beads, plasticine and drawings about butterflies.
7.Literature
1) Alekseev V.A. 300 questions and answers about insects. – Yaroslavl: Academy of Development, 1998. 2) Potapova L.M. Children about nature. 3) Ecology in games for children 5–10 years old. -Holding. 2000.4) Internet resource.
Last year I went to a friend’s wedding and was delighted by the fireworks display of live butterflies. It became interesting how the organizers raised so many butterflies, and how butterflies are born in the first place. Yes, I know that these beauties come from caterpillars, but I was interested in the details.
How a butterfly is born
The entire life cycle of this amazing insect includes several stages:
- egg;
- larva;
- chrysalis;
- butterfly.
From a clutch of eggs laid by an adult, a voracious larva emerges. It sweeps away everything in its path - the shell of the egg from which it hatched, the leaf where the egg was attached, the plant. In fact, during the entire period of the caterpillar stage, the insect is engaged only in eating. This is understandable; she must have a lot of strength and energy to go through the remaining stages of her development.
The caterpillar molts a couple of times, and after the last molt begins to turn into a pupa. A silk thread emerges from the caterpillar's abdomen, with which it clings to the plant. The caterpillar hangs in the air on a thread, constantly wrapping itself around itself. This process is called pupation.
By the way, I could not previously explain to the child why the caterpillar was hanging on the branches.
I think many have seen dense pupae of a dark brown color. This is no coincidence. This camouflage helps the vulnerable pupa survive, because thanks to this appearance it can easily be confused with a dry leaf or twig.
What's inside the cocoon
It would seem that inside the cocoon the caterpillar is resting and patiently waiting for its wings to grow. But no, there is a real transformation into another being.
The caterpillar must recycle its old body, digest itself from the inside. The same enzymes that she used to digest food help her in this. From the old body new cells are produced, which form a new body.
Such processes last approximately 2 weeks, but in some species - several months. After this, the cocoon bursts, and a new form- butterfly. All she has to do is spread her wings, dry them and she can fly.
The main goal and objective of the project Butterflies are one of the most delightful living creatures, captivating us with their silent flight and the beauty of their wings. The history of these lepidopteran insects starts in the distant Jurassic period and to today, in the order of butterflies there are approximately 157 thousand species. And what is surprising is that representatives of this order of insects live, except Antarctica, in all corners globe. Butterflies are amazing and unique insects, the diversity of groups is amazing and delightful. But most of all it is interesting to watch how a butterfly is born.
Life cycle of butterflies. The life cycle of butterflies can be divided into 4 stages: egg, caterpillar, pupa, butterfly.
The female butterfly finds a secluded place on the underside of a leaf and lays many tiny eggs there. A caterpillar emerges from the egg, which by nature is very gluttonous, because it needs to collect as many nutrients as possible for the next three cycles.
As soon as it emerges from the egg, it eats its shell and immediately begins to eat the leaf on which the egg was attached. Throughout its entire cycle, the caterpillar does what it eats, which is why it grows quickly.
During the process of its growth, the caterpillar sheds its skin several times, that is, it molts. Some types of caterpillars increase their weight several thousand times and molt 4-5 times during their life cycle. Each species of butterfly has its own caterpillars.
Attaching itself to the plant with a silk thread (excreted from the abdomen), the caterpillar, clinging to it with its hind legs, hangs in the air. Pupation occurs.
The life cycle of the pupa depends on the type of butterfly; for some it lasts only a few days, and sometimes up to three years.
When metamorphosis ends, the shell of the pupa bursts and a butterfly emerges from it.
At first, the butterfly’s wings are soft and lifeless, as if drooping, so it is very important for the butterfly to find support, a twig, or a stem on which it will be comfortable to anchor itself and spread its wings. The butterfly begins to flutter its wings, as it needs to dry them.
Conclusion. The first flight occurs after the wings have matured and become strong and light. Fluttering through the air, the butterfly looks for a mating partner to lay eggs and continue its life cycle. This is how a butterfly is born, the most beautiful and amazing insect on the planet.
It happened this summer, of course, on a hacienda =) The neighbor, knowing that our family is extremely attentive and curious about all living things, and also, burning with a passion for photography, tries to capture all the picturesque moments, brought a large green caterpillar, with black stripes, like a tiger, and bright red dots. Nate, they say, take a copy for you... After the photo shoot, the question arose - what to do with it? Take it, I say, to the forest so that the garden doesn’t eat up... And the husband says: why go to the forest - the birds will peck it there, let’s better grow a butterfly. It will be beautiful - swallowtail. Well, I understandably doubted that she would grow up in captivity, who knows what she needs to eat, drink, and in general.. But the birds really felt sorry for giving up.. They took a water bottle, poked holes around the perimeter, inside placed the caterpillar with its favorite foods, i.e. dill, parsley, as it turned out later, celery also goes well. Yes, and she only needs a little - 1-2 branches. Although this miracle eats and excretes quite a lot, my parrots, in my opinion, shit less.. And what do you think, a day later I look into the eggplant, and there is a pupa! Well, you don’t need to do anything further, just wait and don’t miss the moment! We raised more than one butterfly over the summer using this method, and how we never noticed them before... See the photos for the rest...
Here are two beauties sitting on a celery branch, where we watched them for almost a week - they did not crawl anywhere:
Overhead, in the area of the first fold, interesting horns are hidden somewhere inside the caterpillar. In case of danger (if you dig too hard =) she sticks them out with a sharp burst and instantly puts them back - as if nothing had happened... they are somewhat reminiscent of the horns of a snail, soft, quite long - up to a centimeter, very bright red and covered with some kind of a very smelly lubricant with a slightly lemony smell... maybe it’s poisonous for someone - I don’t know. The caterpillar tries to reach the offender with these horns, i.e. not just to demonstrate them, but to poke them, but to photograph such a moment, of course, is quite difficult..
But here’s an interesting point: on one already dried dill branch there are 2 forms of the same type at once: a caterpillar and its pupa, into which the neighbor will also soon turn:
Before pupation, the caterpillar attaches to the branch upside down, i.e. suspended with its paws up on one single thread, but very tightly. The very end of the body is also fixed (the tail part, so to speak =)) For some time the caterpillar just hangs on this thread, it doesn’t hold on with its legs, they seem to atrophy:
Later we noticed the skin. It turns out that before the pupa stage, the skin peels off the caterpillar and, as we believe, the body of the caterpillar under the skin produces some kind of composition that hardens, forming a pupa. By the way, it is not very hard and if the pupa is disturbed, the caterpillar inside begins to make sharp, scaring movements - the pupa twitches. Here is the skin: the head continues to hold its shape, the rest of the part slides off like a stocking, gathering into a fold:
The butterfly stayed in the pupal stage for the first time for about a week, although my husband read on the Internet that it should take about 2... It seemed to me that a lot depended on the temperature, the heat was over 30, the butterfly matured quickly in a week, and by the end of summer Our pupa was lying there for 2 weeks and we still didn’t get a butterfly - we had to leave... later it did hatch, we found an empty pupa, I hope the weather that day was tolerable... And this is what the empty pupa, which the butterfly had already left, looks like:
But this, still inconspicuous, miracle is frantically climbing up everything in a row, like ladybug.. runs boldly, moving her paws along her arm all the way to her shoulder (she barely managed to take it off, she was very afraid of injuring herself), her wings are all crumpled, hanging like unironed linen:
Now the wings have already straightened out, but have not yet become stronger; they fall on their sides, weak:
And now it holds up well, everything takes 15-20 minutes:
It’s an incredible miracle to have such an opportunity for macro photography, a butterfly that has just become stronger, beautiful, but in no hurry to fly away:
You are filled with an extraordinary feeling of delight while you watch these lightning-fast transformations of a nondescript insect into an extraordinary, beautiful, harmonious, fragile creation of nature! How perfect everything is in it: shapes, colors, symmetry, design... and all on some kind of dill-parsley... where do these colors come from? such a drawing? such a cute fluff? where did these spider legs come from, which were not even visible anywhere in the clumsy caterpillar? Only the shape of the abdomen resembles a caterpillar... apparently this is inherited =)
Very sweetly she studied her new parts of the body - wings, proboscis... She would stretch it out, move it in the air, and again roll it up like a roll, she felt how surprising, unusual, incomprehensible it all was to her... as if she were studying a mechanism - how does it work? The wings will slowly open and close. Later she began to react to touch: she sits, her wings are closed, if you touch her lightly - bang, like an automatic umbrella and obviously with a threat - she opens it, trying to scare her away.
She ran around, basked in the sun, then fluttered a little - flew to a neighboring flower, then further to the fence onto the raspberry bushes, then over the fence - to the neighbors and flew very high - disappeared from view. About 30-40 minutes pass from the moment of emergence from the pupa. Once she hatched at night... what should I do, I was scared - you won’t let me out... I covered the eggplant and turned off the light - so she sat there until the morning without stirring. It seems like birds have a reflex to darkness, I was counting on that. In the morning, as soon as they brought it out into the sun, it immediately soared up, without rehearsals.
I haven’t tried flying yet, I’m not afraid of my hands at all, I calmly run around everything:
A little chaotic video with our beauty, but there are a couple interesting moments, especially how she feels her proboscis =)
Everyone knows that an unattractive caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly. But how exactly this happens is unlikely to have been seen by many.
Birth of a butterfly from a cocoon.
The grown caterpillar begins to prepare for transformation into a pupa. At this stage of development, the insect does not feed, the body of the larva is reconstructed, as a result of which the caterpillar turns into a butterfly. The caterpillars of many moths burrow into the soil and pupate in chambers lined with silkies. Many caterpillars spin silky cocoons around themselves and pupate on or near food plants. The shape of the pupa resembles a bullet. Most often, butterfly pupae are brown and shiny. Some caterpillars spin fragile cocoons on the soil, but most pupate without them. The pupae of some species hang upside down on food plants or other supports, while others hang upside down, attached by a silk belt. Due to the fact that the pupae hang openly, they need camouflage, so often the pupae have all kinds of outgrowths, and their color blends into the surrounding background.
In the last moments of the caterpillar's life, when it sheds its skin, a pupa appears. Immediately after birth, the butterfly pupa appears to be open: its legs and tiny wings do not fit tightly to the body, and due to the softness of the cuticle (outer shell), they can be bent. But the cuticle quickly hardens, and all limbs are glued to the body by the hardening liquid. The legs and wings can no longer be separated, but they are quite noticeable, as they are outlined by grooves. At first glance, the elongated pupa with a pointed posterior end - the cremaster - looks like a caterpillar. But upon closer examination, some signs are noticeable adult: the rudiments of wings, the contours of the head, proboscis, antennae, abdomen... The dense shell of the pupa is usually completely devoid of hairs, although in several species there are pupae covered with sparse hairs, for example, in some mothworts.
Within a few hours after formation, the pupa may be colorless or even light color. Then it darkens, it appears characteristic of the species drawing.
The pupa is always motionless, although sometimes it can move its abdomen. She does not eat anything, but she breathes, evaporates water and, using the reserves accumulated by the caterpillar, receives the energy necessary for internal changes. And these changes are significant: a caterpillar is sharply different from a butterfly, so the transition to adulthood requires a radical restructuring of the entire anatomy of the insect.
Similar transformations occur in the pupal phase and begin with the collapse of the caterpillar's organs. They turn into a liquid mass consisting of blood enriched with breakdown products. The process is exciting digestive system and muscles (therefore the pupa is motionless), but the development of the nervous and reproductive systems is not interrupted.
At the next stage of metamorphosis, the organs of an adult butterfly are formed. Typically, the development of an insect in a pupa lasts 2-3 weeks. But in wintering pupae, as well as in unfavorable conditions, for example, during drought, this period is extended to several months.
About a day before the butterfly emerges, the shell of the pupa becomes oily-transparent, and sometimes you can even see the color of the wings through the covers. A mature butterfly begins to move, resulting in the pupa bursting along the head and the leading edge of the wings. The butterfly, clinging to the edge of the torn shell with its feet, crawls out.
The legs first appear from the pupa, then successively the mustache, head, and small petals - wings. Soon the butterfly's muscles begin to pump fluid - blood from the bloated body - into the veins of the wings. When the veins are completely filled, the wings acquire their size and shape. This process takes about an hour. As the veins fill with liquid, the butterfly rhythmically opens and closes its wings. Gradually the movement slows down, and in the end it stops altogether. The butterfly dries its wings for a while; soon they will finally get stronger and she will be able to fly. Day and some nocturnal moths usually emerge from their pupae in the morning. In many species, such as satyrs and Apollos, males emerge several days earlier than females. Therefore, at the beginning of the period of appearance of butterflies, only males can be found, and at the end - only females.
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