Insect life cycles: complete metamorphosis
Insect life cycles — complete metamorphosis in detail. Egg → larva → pupa → adult. The larva (caterpillar, grub, maggot) looks completely different from the adult. Inside the pupa the body is rebuilt. Butterflies, beetles, flies, and ladybirds all undergo complete metamorphosis.
What a learner can do afterwards
- Name the four stages of complete metamorphosis using the correct terms: egg, larva, pupa, adult
- Explain that the larva stage is when the insect eats and grows, and the pupa stage is when its body transforms
- Give at least two examples of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis such as butterflies and beetles
The lesson
Some insects hatch from an egg and grow up through four very different stages. This is called complete metamorphosis. The four stages are: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Take a ladybird. It starts as a tiny egg stuck to a leaf. Out hatches a larva: a small, spiky, black and orange grub that eats greenfly all day. The larva grows bigger and bigger. Then it turns into a pupa, stuck still to the leaf. Inside, its whole body changes. At last, an adult ladybird climbs out, round and spotted, ready to fly.
Butterflies, beetles, flies, and ladybirds all go through complete metamorphosis. A caterpillar becomes a butterfly. A maggot becomes a fly. In every case, the larva looks nothing like the adult it will become.
The pupa stage is not just resting time. Inside the pupa, the larva's body is taken apart and rebuilt into the adult's body, with new legs, wings, and shape.
Every insect with complete metamorphosis grows through four stages, egg, larva, pupa, adult, and the pupa is where the big rebuild happens.
Watch it
Where it sits
Learn first
This opens up
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.