Butterfly
and Grasshopper
Life Cycles
Butterfly
and Grasshopper
Life Cycles
Lift the flaps to compare
how a butterfly and a grasshopper
change during their life cycles.
❉
reproducible pages
41 and 42
❉
scissors
❉
tape
❉
colored pencils,
crayons, or markers
(optional)
Materials
39
T
here are about a million kinds of insects, including butterflies,
grasshoppers, bees, beetles, flies, and ants. All insects have six legs,
no bones, and special mouthparts for eating different kinds of
foods. Female insects lay eggs where they will be safe from other animals.
When a grasshopper hatches out of its egg, it looks like a smaller
version of its parents, but without wings. Its mouthpart enables it to
bite and chew leaves. As the young grasshopper (also called a nymph)
continues to eat and grow, its body gets too big for its hard outer skin
covering. When this happens, the nymph molts, or breaks out of its
skin, and makes a new one. A nymph molts several times before it
grows into a full-sized adult. During this molting stage, the young
grasshopper develops wings. When it reaches full adult size, the
grasshopper stops molting.
Unlike a grasshopper, a butterfly looks nothing at all like its parents
when it hatches. A butterfly starts life as a multi-legged caterpillar (also
known as a larva) and feeds on leaves. Like a grasshopper, a caterpillar
molts as it grows. When a caterpillar has reached its full size, it stops
eating and spins a silk “button” from glands near its mouth. It attaches
the silk to a branch or other surface, and then hangs from it. The
caterpillar then secretes a substance that hardens into a case called a
chrysalis around its body. While inside the chrysalis, the caterpillar
is called a pupa. It neither eats nor moves, but through the process
of metamorphosis, its body transforms—growing wings, changing
mouthparts, and developing six legs. When the change is complete,
the chrysalis splits open and the full-grown butterfly pulls itself out. It
pumps blood into its wings, waits for them to dry, then flies off to sip
nectar from flowers, mate, and lay eggs.
Science Corner
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
More To Do
Big Change Artists
Butterflies aren’t the
only insects that change
completely during their
life cycles. Beetles, moths,
and bees do, too. Challenge
students to find out about
these different kinds of
insects and how they change
from egg to adult. Make
an insect chart on which
students can write the
names of different insects
and draw pictures of them.
Resources
Are You A Grasshopper?
by Judy Allen and Tudor
Humphries (Kingfisher,
2004).
This easy-to-read book
follows the life of a
grasshopper living in a
backyard.
From Caterpillar to Butterfly
by Deborah Heiligman
(Collins, 2008).
Students in a classroom
watch as a caterpillar in a jar
turns into a butterfly.
http://www.
pacificsciencecenter.org/
exhibits/tropical-butterfly-
house/faq
This site from the Pacific
Science Center answers
frequently asked questions
about butterflies.
40
B u t t e r F ly a n d g r a s s h o p p e r l i F e c y c l e s
Making the Figure-Eights
1 Photocopy pages 41 and 42. Color, if desired.
2 Cut out the two figure-eights along the thick outer lines.
3 Cut open the cut out window and the flaps on the butterfly &
grasshopper piece along the thick solid lines.
4 Place the two figure-eights on
top of each other so that the
window reveals the pictures
of the adult butterfly and
grasshopper. Tape the figure-
eights together at the top and
bottom, as shown.
Teaching With the Wheels
Ask students if they have ever seen a butterfly or a grasshopper. Have
them describe what the insects looked like, what they were doing, and
where they were. Ask: What do you think a butterfly looks like when it is
young? What about a grasshopper?
To learn more about a butterfly and grasshopper’s life cycles, invite
students to color and make their figure-eights. Have them follow the
arrows, read the text, and lift the flaps. Then check for understanding
by asking them these questions:
1 What kind of egg does a caterpillar hatch from? What about a
nymph? (A caterpillar hatches out of a butterfly egg; a nymph from a
grasshopper egg.)
2 How are caterpillars and nymphs alike? (They eat, grow, and shed
their skins.)
3 What happens inside a caterpillar’s hard case? (The caterpillar turns
into a butterfly.)
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Butterfly
Grasshopper
Cut o u t
Inside, the
caterpillar
changes into
a butterfly.
A caterpillar eats,
grows, and sheds its skin.
When the caterpillar is fully
grown, a hard case forms
around it.
The eggs
hatch into
caterpillars.
Female
butterflies lay
eggs.
Female
grasshoppers
lay eggs.
The eggs
hatch into
tiny, wingless
nymphs.
Nymphs
look like
their
parents.
A nymph
eats, grows,
and sheds
its skin.
When
a nymph
becomes
an adult,
it has wings.
Eggs
Eggs
41
Buttery and
Grasshopper
Life Cycles
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
Adult butterfly
Little
nymph
Bigger
nymph
Pupa
Caterpillar
Adult grasshopper
42
Buttery and
Grasshopper
Life Cycles
Interactive Science Wheels © Silver & Wynne, Scholastic Teaching Resources
