Have you ever seen a baby butterfly?
A life cycle is made up of the different stages a living creature goes through from beginning to end.
Butterflies look very different during the first stage of their life cycle. Do you know which comes first?
- Chrysalis
- Caterpillar
- Egg
- Butterfly
Mini-challenge
Can you create a butterfly life cycle out of pasta shapes?
Moth or butterfly?
Do you know the difference between a moth and a butterfly?
Here are some suggestions for things to look out for:
- Bright vs dull colour wings
- Active during day vs night
- Shape of antennae – feathery vs smooth
- Chrysalis (smooth) or cocoon (furry)
- Tongue or no tongue
Moths and butterflies belong to the same family called Lepidoptera (leh·puh·dop·tuh·ruh).
Mini-challenge
Test your skills, and see if you can spot some moths and butterflies in your local park. Try looking at different times of day, to see if you notice different types.
Get counting!
Butterflies are important as well as beautiful. They carry pollen (a yellow powder) from one flower to another, helping to make new flowers – this is called pollination.
Butterflies drink nectar from flowers. So we can help them by planting lots of different kinds of flowers.
BUT butterfly numbers are going down and we need your help to spot different kinds of butterflies.
The UK’s Big Butterfly Count is on until Sunday 9 August so you just have one week left to join in!
Mini-challenge
Time yourself and try to spot as many butterflies as you can in one hour!
Download a spotter sheet from The Big Butterfly Count website.