In the life of a butterfly, after four "big changes in face", each "change of face" makes us exclaim that this is a butterfly? Unbelievable and amazing. These four "great face changes" are called "completely metamorphosed" insects, namely eggs, larvae, pupae and adult insects, from in vivo fertilized eggs to sexually mature adult butterflies, the four worm stages are called a life cycle, that is, a generation.
Each "big change of face" is accompanied by four different life functions of butterflies, and this life function breaks our habitual thinking about the animal kingdom. Cracking the "inconceivable" one by one, let us enter the world of butterflies.
Perfect silk powder butterfly in laying eggs
The butterfly's eggs are the beginning of the butterfly's life form, which is laid after the female is fertilized. Butterfly eggs are really strange, spherical (such as the butterfly family), hemispherical (such as the butterfly family), oval (such as the eye butterfly family) and so on.
The form of spawning is also different, some scattered, only one or two grains in one place, and then change places to lay.
Eggs of citrus butterflies (single-grain)
Some are polypartitious, laying multiple eggs together, and some are laying large pieces.
Eggs of ramie butterfly (sheet production)
Gongshan's perfect silk powder butterfly is superimposed on the leaves of the plants that have contributed to the Dulongjiang River. A female butterfly can lay about 250 eggs, and if these eggs can grow normally, then the butterfly will cover the sky.
A butterfly expert did an investigation, saying that the male-female ratio of butterflies, the proportion of butterflies that grow naturally in the wild accounted for only about 5%, which greatly inhibited the large number of butterflies; from eggs to adult butterflies a life cycle, the butterfly survival rate is only about 5%, butterflies in the larval stage, most of them are birds, spiders and parasitic bees and other parasitic creatures and other natural enemies to eat, this is the female butterfly such amazing reproductive ability, the world has not become the reason for the butterfly world.
Perfecting the eggs of the silk butterfly (stacking)
The larvae of a butterfly are the larvae that the eggs of a butterfly undergo complex embryonic changes. As soon as the larva crawls out of the egg shell, it desperately eats.
The larvae of butterflies feed on the young leaves and flower buds of plants, and some also feed on other small larvae.
Eat, let the butterfly larvae grow particularly fast, ten and a half days the original wrapping of their own epidermis has not adapted to grow up larvae, it will peel off this layer of epidermis, grow a new epidermis to replace it, this phenomenon is called peeling. Most butterflies generally shed their skin 5 times, and some up to a dozen times.
Pupae are the transformation period of butterflies, and the internal organs are radically modified. The shape of the butterfly pupa is completely different from that of the larvae, with oval, barrel and prismatic shape. The shape of the butterfly pupa fixed to the object is also very interesting, some are like electricians working on power poles in the field, tied with filaments at the waist, and the end of the abdomen is filled with hip spines and silk on the object, called a chrysalis; some only use gluteal spines and silk to fill the object, called a suspended pupae; some hide themselves in dead leaves, fine stones or ant buries, which is called cocoon pupae. What we see with the naked eye is the inedible pupae, but in fact, the interior is undergoing a major transformation of bone, antennae, beak tubes, wings, and sexual function growth and maturation. After dozens of days or months of butterfly pupae bone transformation, adult butterflies will break the cocoon, gorgeous and colorful, and soar to the sky.
Adult butterflies are the end and beginning of the life cycle of butterflies entering the reproductive period of sexual maturity. An important mission of male and female butterflies is to breed offspring. Before the female butterfly has feathered, the male butterfly flies around the female butterfly, and the female butterfly has just feathered out, and the wings have not yet hardened and began to intercourse with the female butterfly.
The process of feathering of ramie butterflies
The sexual maturation of butterflies is done during pupal and we cannot see them with the naked eye. Female butterflies generally mate only once in their lives, and if the mated butterflies are pursued by the male again, they will raise their tails to refuse. What is more interesting is that after the butterfly has intercourse, the female butterfly forms a different shape of chaste bag under the end of the abdomen, preventing the female butterfly from mating again. Male butterflies die naturally after completing their mating mission, and female butterflies die naturally after laying their eggs. Some female butterflies use their last strength and die after laying the last egg.
Butterflies in tropical regions live for about 15 days, while wintering butterflies in cold regions can live for more than 150 days.
Rare ma zhen butterfly cross-tail
Most butterflies breed only one generation a year, while others reproduce for several generations, up to a dozen generations. The most surprising thing for us is that in the Gongshan Nature Reserve, we can see the phenomenon of butterfly generations, that is, we can see butterflies at the same time, butterflies with tails, eggs of butterflies, larvae of different insect ages, and pupae of butterflies, let us go into nature to see the spectacle of butterfly generation overlap!
The spectacle of the mazhen butterfly generation overlaps
Photo/Text: Wang Yanchun
Source: Gongshan Nature Reserve Gongshan Management and Protection Branch
Original title: The Life of a Butterfly
Editor: City Times pays a little attention to Wu Wei
Review: Zhu Xiaohan