do all catterpillars turn into a butterfly?

Answer 1

To answer your question - no - all caterpillars do NOT turn into butterflies. However, the reason is more so just a focus on proper categorization as some caterpillars turn into moths. Therefore, if you want, your question could be phrased, “Do all caterpillars go through metamorphosis” if you were looking to see if they just went through a change in general as opposed to simply *what* they turned into. Now, just to clarify, butterflies and moths go through a life cycle known as complete metamorphosis which is a process of transformation from one living state into another (in a simplified definition anyways). The stages of their life cycle include: egg, larva, pupa and adult.

Every butterfly begins its life as an egg. Female butterflies are very meticulous about where they lay their eggs because caterpillars in general are very fussy about what they will eat. Each species of butterfly will only eat a single plant (or group of closely related plants) as caterpillars. The particular plant that a caterpillar must have is called the host plant for that species of butterfly (or moth). Butterflies and moths go through the same stages in their metamorphosis with one difference. Many moths form a cocoon instead of a chrysalis.

Moths form cocoons by first spinning a silken "house" around them. Once the cocoon is finished, the moth caterpillar molts for the last time, and forms a pupa inside the cocoon. Alternatively, butterflies *never* form cocoons, despite the laypersons common misconceptions about this. However, not all moths form cocoons, either! Some moth species pupate underground instead. These caterpillars burrow into the soil or leaf litter, molt to form their pupa, and remain underground until the moth emerges. The newly emerged moth will then crawl out from underground, crawl up onto a surface from which they can hang, and will then expand their wings in preparation for flight. So... to end, I gave you two answers. I hope that I interpreted your question correctly and gave more of the answer you wanted than not… Ha Ha! Cheers!

Answer 2

all the caterpillars undergoing successful metamorphosis change either to:
1.butterfly
or
2.moth

caterpillar is a "larval stage" in the life history of insects

Answer 3

sounds like a wizard to me. next element he will be doing is magically remodeling ice into water through leaving it out in the sunlight. i imagine that youngster is going places! (and also you too)

Answer 4

i guess they do except the ones that die prematurely.