When we think of butterflies, we only imagine their adult face,
their silent, floating beauty.
But this is just one stage of an extraordinary life cycle.
Butterflies are shapeshifters,
practicing nature's ultimate magic trick:
metamorphosis.
Here's a glimpse into that remarkable feat of transformation
as performed by the painted lady.
You may have seen this butterfly, the painted lady,
also known as the Cosmopolitan,
because it's found in most locations across the globe.
She may be common, but her lifestyle is anything but.
Painted Lady butterflies travel more than any other insect.
over 31,000 miles every year.
Some will fly from the Sahara’s unforgiving summer
to as far north as the Arctic Circle in search of food.
Because they're always on the move,
painted ladies have a unique system of continuous mating
throughout all seasons.
When they arrive in a place with enough nectar
and the right plants on which to lay their eggs,
the marvelous metamorphosis journey will begin.
Butterfly antennae are loaded with chemo sensors
to catch the scent of flowers
and mates.
Although the painted lady is unique in its year round mating activities,
all species of butterflies get together in the same way.
Sometimes they mate for hours,
depending on the couple.
And when it's over, the female must find the right plant on which to lay her eggs.
She chooses the perfect spot
by tasting the leaves with the chemo receptors on her legs.
Luckily for the painted lady,
she has 100 different plans to choose from.
The first of four stages in the miraculous butterfly life cycle
begins straight after mating.
Her pinhead-sized eggs are attached to the leaf with a type of glue,
so they stay in place on top,
whatever the angle.
Now that she has laid her eggs,
this female will die soon.
But she's left behind hundreds of potential butterflies.
As the caterpillars inside these eggs grow,
they will develop special groups of cells known as imaginal discs.
These are the building blocks of every body part the future butterfly will need.
Five days have passed.
Stage two of the painted ladies life cycle will soon begin.
The first caterpillars are about to burst onto the scene.
A hairy body,
wingless and drab,
with eight pairs of legs instead of three.
These changelings,
hardly the size of a grain of rice,
bear no resemblance at all to their parents.
Yet in just over two weeks,
they'll be flying free in a new butterfly body.
Until then, they'll stay attached to their host plant
by spinning sticky silken lifelines.
It's essential that the caterpillars remain in place,
gorging themselves on leaves,
so they have enough energy for the next transition.
As a caterpillar grows, it molts five times,
each stage is called an instar.
The caterpillar doesn't just shed its skin,
it digests and reabsorbs most of it.
Now, at the 5th instar,
this painted lady caterpiller is ready to transition
to the 3rd stage of metamorphosis.
And that will require abandoning her body.
She hangs beneath a leaf,
suspended by herself, spun silk threads.
Her days of eating leaves are over.
Now she must digest her own body.
The caterpillar is attacked by the same sort of juices
that it used in its earlier life to digest food.
The old body turns to liquid form.
But not all of it.
The imaginal discs,
those special groups of cells she developed
while she was just an embryo inside the egg will survive.
Behind the protective curtain of the chrysalis,
these cells use the protein-rich soup surrounding them
to fuel the rapid cell division required to form wings,
antennae, legs, eyes
and all the other features of an adult butterfly.
It takes up to 16 days for the reconstruction process to be complete.
And then a star is born.
Straight out of the chrysalis,
she's already sexually mature,
and there's no time to lose.
For this painted lady epic journeys lie ahead,
distant places to visit in search of food for herself
and the future generation
before the cycle of miraculous metamorphosis begins again.
Thanks for watching.
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