The Butterfly Book of Life

                                  written and Illustrated by  Kayley Huskonen

Grades 1-3 

In the warm, sunny months of spring and summer butterflies come around. These beautiful creatures pollinate by bringing pollen from flower to flower like a bumble bee

Did you know that the butterfly is just one stage of their life cycle? 

The butterfly starts out as a tiny little egg. 

These eggs are all shapes: oval, round, some have ridges, some are smooth. 

The momma butterfly sticks her eggs on leaves or a stem. This plant, too, will soon be food. 

Inside the eggs, the butterfly's life begins. It is not quite a butterfly yet, but a larva indeed. These Larvae are also called pupae or caterpillars. At first, these caterpillars look like a wiggly worm.

Pupae:  stage between the larva and adult stages.

The caterpillar's job is to eat and eat and eat. 

Some caterpillars eat plants, and some eat insects. They eat so much they soon turn into something neat. 

Their skin becomes too tight, and they split. Underneath there is a new skin for the caterpillar to grow. The caterpillar eats and eats until the caterpillar has finished growing. The caterpillar then hangs upside down from a branch slowly forming a shell around it. This shell is called a chrysalis. 

Chrysalis: A hard exoskeleton covering that protects the developing butterfly beneath.

Like the caterpillar, the chrysalis even has a special pattern that helps keep it safe from enemies. In the chrysalis, something wonderful happens.  The butterfly's wings, antenna and legs grow. After one or two weeks of the caterpillar growing and growing, it becomes a beautiful butterfly.