The diagram is a series of pictorial illustrations, presenting the Monarch butterfly’s life cycle, complete with expected time brackets and labelled stages. Overall, a Monarch butterfly goes through four stages of life; the first two being egg stage and larval stage, in which the butterfly is born, and the second two being pupal and adult stages, in which the butterfly grows, reaches maturity, and restarts the cycle.
The first on the list is the egg stage, which usually takes around fourteen days. A pair of butterflies mate and lay eggs, leaving them on a plant known as milkweed. These eggs then hatch into larvae, transitioning into the larval stage where the newborn insect feeds on the milkweed and grows. Afterwards, the larva attaches itself to a branch, transforming into a chrysalis and initializing the pupal stage. The time spent between the beginning and the end of the pupal stage takes roughly around 10 days.
Once the process has been completed, a matured Monarch butterfly will exit the cocoon. Following this, the emergent butterfly will migrate south and become an adult over the course of six months. Next, the butterfly, having fully grown into an adult, will seek out a mate and begin the cycle anew.