Larva

A caterpillar is the larval stage of a butterfly. The caterpillar hatches from a tiny egg and will eventually pupate and turn into an adult butterfly.

This larval stage usually lasts from two weeks to about a month. This is the main feeding stage of the butterfly. Caterpillars eat almost constantly and grow very quickly, at an astonishing rate.

*If you ate and grew as fast as a caterpillar, you would be the size of a pick-up truck in two weeks.