Animals that Grow Up (Simple Life Cycle):
The majority of animals, such as fish, mammals, reptiles, and birds, have extremely basic life cycles:
- they are born (either hatching from eggs or born alive from their mother).
- they grow up
There are three stages for these animals: prenatal, juvenile, and adult. The young are typically similar to the parent, just smaller. The young slowly “grow” to become adults.
Amphibians have a slightly more complex life cycle than other animals, such as frogs and newts. They undergo a metamorphosis (a big change):
- they are born (either hatching from eggs or born alive from their mother).
- they spend their childhood under water, breathing with gills
- When they reach adulthood and move onto land, they breathe through their lungs.
Complete Metamorphosis Has Four Stages: Egg, Larva, Pupa, and Adult
Every stage of the entire metamorphosis differs from the animal’s appearance in every other stage. Unlike incomplete metamorphosis, in which the early stages of development resemble miniature versions of the adult, this One type of insect that undergoes the whole metamorphosis process is the butterfly.
The beginning of complete metamorphosis is when the insect hatches from its egg into a soft, worm-like form known as a larva. Larvae can consume multiple times their body weight each day due to their voracious appetite. Babies would begin eating up to ten pounds of food every day if humans followed suit. Because of their massive larval diet, insects grow extremely quickly.
Some larvae add more body segments as they grow. Similar to how humans refer to their children as babies, toddlers, or teenagers, scientists refer to these developmental changes as instars. For instance, a very young larva would be referred to as an instar 1 and an adolescent as an instar 3, rather than a baby. Depending on the kind of insect, there may be a variation in the number of instar stages.
The insect will form a hard shell at the end of its larval stage, and inside it will develop into a pupa. At this stage the larva will stop eating and moving. Although the pupa looks dead, one of nature’s most incredible changes is taking place. The larva’s body will entirely transform into an adult within the pupa. After emerging from the pupa, the adult slowly spreads out and unwinds in the sun for a few hours, allowing its exoskeleton to harden and dry.
There are several insects that undergo full metamorphosis, such as fleas, mosquitoes, ants, butterflies, moths, and beetles.
Before becoming adults, ants start off as eggs and go through numerous instar and larval stages as well as a pupal stage. Male, queen, or female ants are the three adult forms that an ant can take on. These s are from a scanning electron microscope.
A portion of a mosquito’s life is spent as a wingless larva living in water pools.
Animals that Undergo a Complete
Metamorphosis:
These insects have four stages in their life cycle:
- egg: unborn stage.
- larva: early stage, during which the majority of feeding occurs (they usually look like worms).
- pupa: inactive (no feeding) stage between larva and adult stages. (usually well camouflaged).
- adult: final, breeding stage. (they usually grow wings)
What my daughter Kaitlyn refers to as “Wow!” animals are those that undergo a full metamorphosis; they go to sleep looking one way and wake up as an entirely different creature. Wow!.
FAQ
What animal undergoes metamorphosis?
What does not go through metamorphosis?
Do all mammals go through metamorphosis?
Which animals have 4 life cycles?