The insects that stay in the egg longer need more time to grow and become strong enough to live outside of the egg. But there are some insects that will live through an entire season as an egg before hatching. Most insects begin life as an egg and hatch within a few days of being laid. This transformation is called a metamorphosis. To do this, they will grow and change as they go through different stages. Unlike human skin, chitin is not stretchy and insects must make new skeletons as they grow larger. An exoskeleton is made of chitin which is a strong and hard material. Insects have an exoskeleton, which means that their skeleton is on the outside of their body. Humans have a skeleton on the inside of their bodies, where the bones can grow longer and thicker as they get older. People change too, but our development is not as impressive as that of insects. Ladybeetles begin as eggs, then go through a larva and pupa stage before reaching their adult form. In fact, many insects experience extreme changes as they grow and develop to become adults.Īdult ladybeetle laying eggs. For some insects it is possible to begin life crawling and eating and later change into a flying animal. Both of these changes are impressive, but maybe the most amazing animal transformation happens in the insect world. Fish, such as salmon, must transform so they can move from fresh water to salt water and back to freshwater. Frogs start out as eggs, then become tadpoles before becoming adults. There are a lot of examples of this type of change. The word “metamorphosis” comes from the Greek and means to transform.
Every day there are animals that make these types of changes as part of a process called metamorphosis.
Does this sound like a fantastic and unbelievable story to you? It isn’t. Maybe you begin your life with gills and fins so you can breathe and swim under water and then later grow a set of lungs and legs so you could live on dry land. You might start out walking on the ground with two legs and then later develop wings to fly. Imagine if your body could change its shape and the things it could do. Other animals can go through stages of metamorphosis.
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