Nature, Cultural, and Travel Photography Blog: Life cycle

Showing posts with label Life cycle. Show all posts

Small White Butterfly Life Cycle

Mud Dauber Wasp Life Cycle

Black and Yellow Mud Dauber (Sceliphron caementarium) is a species of wasp in the family Sphecidae, that build their nests from mud. Like many other insects the mud dauber wasp life cycle consists of four stages i.e. egg, larva, pupa and adult wasp. They generally make one cylindrical cell per day and spend the remaining time on leveling the nest. After completing the mud nest the female captures several insects or spiders to provision the cells. Prey are stung and paralyzed before being placed in the nest. A single egg is deposited on the prey within each cell, and the cell is sealed with mud. After completing a series of cells, the wasp departs and does not return again. The larvae that hatch from the eggs feed on the prey spiders left by the adult wasp. On maturity the larva turned into pupa and then emerges into an adult wasps. Below is the visual representation of different stages of mud dauber wasp life cycle.

Mud Dauber Wasp Life Cycle

Mud Dauber Wasp

Mud Dauber Wasp Egg

Mud Dauber Wasp Larva

Mud Dauber Wasp Pupa

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Life Cycle

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Egg

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Larva/Caterpillar

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Pre-pupa

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Pupa

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly

Danaid Eggfly Butterfly Host Plant (Portulaca sp.)

Praying Mantis Life Cycle

After mating the female praying mantis lay eggs in a frothy mass, which harden over time to protect eggs and is called egg case or ootheca. The egg case is laid about 1 to 7 days after mating. The Egg case contains several hundred eggs, which grown into nymphs inside the egg case. The nymphs emerge from egg case in about 20-25 days depending on temperature. In cold weather development may take several months. The Nymphs resemble the grown up praying mantis in shape, but are smaller, wingless and may have different color. They molt several time before reaching to maturity.

Praying Mantis Life Cycle

Praying Mantis Babies Hatching Video

Head Lice Life Cycle

Head Lice Life Cycle

Head Lice Life Cycle Diagram

The Head Lice (Pediculus humanus capitis) Life Cycle consist of 3 stages i.e Eggs/Nits, Nymphs and Adult Head Lice. All these 3 stages last in about 40 to 50 days.

Head Lice Eggs/Nits

Head Lice reproduce by laying eggs/nits on the hair shaft close to the scalp of their host. The adult female louse can lay up to 4-10 eggs a day and about 120 eggs in the whole lifespan. The dark-brown color eggs are oval-shaped and about 0.8 mm in length. The eggs hatch in about six to nine days, depending on temperature.

Head Lice Eggs/Nits

Nymphs/Baby Lice

Newly hatched nymphs or baby lice feed on the blood of their host like adult lice and molt three times before reaching the sexually-mature adult stage. The nymphs look similar the adult head lice, but are smaller and have relatively pale color. The Nymph stage lasts about 9 to 12 days, depending on feeding conditions.

Baby Head Lice

Adult and Nymph Louse

Head Lice

Adult head lice are about 1–3 mm long, tan to grayish-white in color. Head lice are wingless, have six legs, one pair of antenna, each with five segments and one pair of eyes. The abdomen consists of seven segments. Males are slightly smaller than females and having a pointed end of the abdomen. The females are characterized by two gonopods in the shape of a W at the end of their abdomen. The life span of an adult head louse is about 28 days.

Head Lice Pictures

Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle

The Painted Lady-تتلی (Vanessa cardui) is a medium size butterfly having a wing-span of about 55-60 mm, in family Nymphalidae (brush-footed butterflies or four-footed butterflies). I have already posted some pictures of Painted Lady Butterfly. Today I'm going to share the pictures of four stages of painted lady butterfly life cycle. Observing and documenting the different phases of a butterfly life cycle is really a fun.

Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle

Eggs

The Female painted lady butterfly lays pale green eggs on the upper surface of the host plant leaves. The eggs are laid individually and hatch in about 4 to 6 days. The host plants in our area are milk thistle, Canadian thistle and common mallow.

Painted Lady Butterfly Eggs Pictures

Larva/Caterpillar

When the caterpillar hatches, it eats the egg shell as its first meal. Then it starts eating the leaf of host plant upon which the egg had been laid. The caterpillar passes through four different instars before pupation. This stage takes about 10 days to complete.

Painted Lady Butterfly Larva/Caterpillar Pictures

Pupa/Chrysalis

At the final molt the caterpillar crawls to a safe place and hangs upside down from a branch or leaf with the help of silken thread. In about 24 hours the skin splits down the back and a grayish-pink color pupa/chrysalis appears, which then turns golden. On maturity the pupa become transparent and the wings of butterfly become visible. The pupa takes about 7 days to turns into a butterfly.

Painted Lady Butterfly Pupa/Chrysalis Pictures

Butterfly

When the butterfly emerges from the pupa, its wings are wet and folded. In about 10 minutes the wings open and become straight. Then it needs about an hour more to dry and harden the wings. In drying process it does not open wings, so I had to disturbed it to take an open wings shot.

Painted Lady Butterfly (Vanessa cardui)

Painted Lady Butterfly Life Cycle Slideshow

Striped Pierrot Tarucus nara Life Cycle

The Striped Pierrot (Tarucus nara) is a small butterfly (wingspan: 24 - 28 mm) found in South Asia that belongs to the Lycaenids or Blues family.

Striped Pierrot (Tarucus nara) Butterfly Life Cycle

Eggs are laid singly on the young shoots of the host plants Zizyphus sp. It takes 2-3 days for the egg to hatch.

Egg

The caterpillars of this species feed on Zizyphus sp. and are attended by ants. The caterpillars occur in two colors i.e pale green and dark green. The caterpillar reach a maximum length of about 14 mm. The larva stage last for about 12 days.

Larva

On maturity the caterpillar stops eating and attache itself to a leaf head down, supported by a silken grid at the center. The pupa has a length of about 8-9mm. Like caterpillars the pupa also occur in two colors i.e pale green and dark green. On the 6th day the pupa turns transparent, revealing the new butterfly inside and after some time the adult butterfly enclosed itself. Before flight, the newly emerged butterfly takes some time to inflating its wings with blood and letting them dry.

Pupa

Newly Emerged Butterfly

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