The sun shines on
wildflowers.
A tiny egg hides
under a leaf.
The egg splits open.
A caterpillar crawls out.
The caterpillar
is very hungry.
She eats her eggshell.
Munch!
She grows bigger.
Leaves are yummy.
Crunch!
Other insects
join the feast.
Red aphids (AY-fids)
slurp sap.
Bees slurp nectar.
Spiders spin webs
to trap meals.
The caterpillar grows
even bigger.
Soon she will be too big
for her own skin!
To keep growing,
she must shed her skin.
This is called molting.
Her old skin splits open.
She wiggles out.
She has a new
set of stripes.
She is always hungry.
Her body is
done growing.
She has molted
four times.
She spits up a blob
of sticky stuff.
She sticks to it
and hangs upside down.
The caterpillar molts
one last time.
She has formed a sac
around herself.
The sac is called a
chrysalis (KRISS-uh-liss).
Many changes are
going on inside.
The caterpillar is
changing into a butterfly!
Now the chrysalis is
almost see-through.
After ten days or so,
the sac opens.
A butterfly pops out!
But she is too weak to fly.
She holds on to the sac.
She pumps fluid
into her new wings.
Her wings dry in the sun.
Now the butterfly flies
and looks for food.
She has not eaten
in two weeks!
The butterfly flies
from flower to flower.
She unrolls her tongue.
It is like a straw.
She sips sweet nectar.
Soon she finds
a winter home
with other butterflies.
It is time to mate.
Our little butterfly
lays her eggs
under the leaf
of a plant.
A few days later,
a caterpillar
eats its way
out of its shell.
The little caterpillar
is very hungry.
Can you guess what
happens next?