Monarch egg
Monarch caterpillar
Monarch butterfly on fall gourds
Monarchs on bloodflower milkweed
This is a new-born Black Swallowtail
caterpillar eating its eggshell.  This
is often a caterpillar's first meal.
Close-up of the fleshy feet (prolegs) of a Luna moth caterpillar,
used for crawling.  The bottom of the feet are covered with tiny
hooklets (think of Velcro) called crochets, used to cling to things.
Here are some of our brand new life cycles.  We photographed these after the
release of our book.  Check this site regularly to see our new butterfly and
moth life cycles and other educational photos.
Check out this Promethea Moth (Callosamia promethea).  These cool-looking caterpillars eat spicebush
leaves, and their appearance changes with each molt of their skin.  The adult moths fly at night and only live
long enough to mate and lay their eggs....about a week or two.  When the caterpillars are mature, they spin a
silk cocoon attached to a stem of the food plant using a leaf to wrap themselves in to hide.
This is the Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) butterfly life cycle.  They use our senna (Cassia) plants as
hosts for the caterpillars to eat.  The green caterpillars blend in very well with the plant leaves, but they can
also be bright yellow like the color of the blooms on the senna plant.  The mature caterpillar has bright blue
spots on a yellow stripe.  The chrysalis has an unusual shape....it reminds us of a swordfish.
This is the life cycle of the Forest Tent Caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) .  The eggs are deposited in a
mass with a dark-colored protective coating that hardens when it dries.  The caterpillars are fuzzy with pale
blue markings down their sides.  These hungry guys eat all kinds of leaves.  In our yards they especially
devoured maple tree leaves and defoliated our roses.  In a couple of weeks, they are mature and spin a
white silk cocoon.  The small brown moth that emerges was a favorite food of our song birds.
Here's an American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) butterfly laying her eggs on our hackberry tree.  The
eggs are very tiny.  You really need a magnifying glass to get a good look at them.  The caterpillars are
various shades of green and yellow with black markings and a green head.  The chrysalis is green and
about the size of a lima bean.  The butterfly is shades of brown with orange markings.
The milkweed tussock moth
cocoons are little black
prickly hairballs.
A snout butterfly hanging from the
empty shell of its chrysalis.
All photographs on this site are copyright protected.  For permission to use any
photo, please contact Judy Burris at admin@butterflynature.com
Close-up of the face of a caterpillar.
 It uses the three pairs of front legs
to hold onto its food as it eats.
This is a Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia)
caterpillar.  See the pale blue oval shapes along the
center of its body?  These are pores called spiracles.
Caterpillars breathe through these kinds of openings.
They don't have a nose or lungs like we do.
This wild-looking caterpillar is a Milkweed Tussock Moth (Euchaetes egle).  It looks
like it is made of fuzzy tufts of orange, white and black yarn.  It eats the leaves of our
milkweed plants.  The young caterpillars eat together in a group.  The adult moth is
small and shiny silver-colored with a bright orange body marked with black dots.
The American Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) is a small butterfly with a wingspan of about one inch across.  Its
host plants are in the buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) including sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) and
curled dock (Rumex crispus).  The tiny pale eggs - usually just one on a leaf - are almost impossible to see
without using a magnifying glass.  The green caterpillar is covered in short hairs and blends in with the plant
leaves.  The last brood of the season will spend the winter as a chrysalis.  The adult butterflies
nectar on clover, ox-eye daisy and other flowers found in wild meadows, fields and old pastures.
"The Life Cycles of Butterflies" by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards

This is the Silver-spotted
skipper (Epargyreus
clarus) life cycle.  Notice
how the egg develops a
red ring around it as it
matures.  The caterpillar
has a very large head in
comparison to other
butterfly caterpillars.  
These were eating our
wisteria vine, but they
also host on other
legumes including black
locust trees.