The Wonders of the Butterfly World

The life cycle of the average butterfly is less than three months. During this time the butterfly goes through four stages.
> The egg stage lasts 3-8 days.
> The larva or caterpillar stage lasts 21-40 days.
> The pupa or chrysalis stage lasts 8-15 days.
> The adult butterfly lives 2-3 weeks.

During the time the adult butterfly is alive it's main function is to mate and lay eggs. Thus the cycle of life starts again. The adult butterfly pictured in this section is called The Postman and is found in Central and South America.

I volunteer at the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House in Chesterfield, Mo. You can find more information about them at their website The Butterfly House

The Butterfly House gets their butterflies shipped to them from butterfly farms around the world. They are shipped in the chrysalis stage and we recieve several shipments each week. The Butterfly House has about 2000 tropical butterflies in the flight house that represent 60-80 different species.

The butterfly that is pictured in this section is the Malachite (Siproeta stelienes) and it was raised on a butterfly farm in Costa Rica).

The Monarchs are an interesting group of butterflies. We see many Monarchs in the United States where they migrate in the summertime from Mexico. Since adult butterflies normally live only 2-3 weeks I was very curious how they could fly all the way to Mexico.

What I found out was that each year as the days get shorter and the temperatures get cooler, the last generation of that years butterflies stop laying eggs and store up their energy for the long flight south. These butterflies actually live for several months while they winter in warmer climates. They are truly amazing creatures.

You can follow their migration at the following site. www.monarchwatch.org

The butterfly pictured in this section is called The Paper Kite and is native to Malaysia and the Philippines. It is also a member of the Monarch or Danaidae family.

The Atlas moth is a very large brightly colored moth. In fact, if you consider it's total wing size, it is the largest moth in the world. This moth does all it's eating in the larva stage. It flies mostly at night. It is a very popular sight at the Butterfly House in Chesterfield, Mo. It is the only moth in the conservatory and can often be seen spread out on a tree trunk. You can see some great photos of the moth under "Raising moths and Butterflies" in the more Butterfly information section.

Monarch on Purple Flower, Happy Birthday by mbgphoto
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