Different Caterpillar Sizes

This May I raised another brood of caterpillars. I had eighty. I included pictures of them in all different stages. 

This little caterpillar just hatched. It is about the size of an ant. The yellowish objects on my hand are Monarch eggs.

This little caterpillar is probably a few days old. They grow so fast! Each time a caterpillar sheds it’s skin it gets bigger. A caterpillar shedding it’s skin is called molting. The time in between each molt is called an instar. In their first few instars they almost double in size every day.

This caterpillar is in its second instar. It has shed its skin once.

This caterpillar is preparing to molt (shed skin). Before molting the caterpillar attaches itself to a leaf and stays very still for hours. Right now it is in it’s 4th instar but after it sheds it’s skin it will be in the 5th instar.

Look how big this one is. It is one inch long.

This caterpillar is in it’s 5th instar. It is now starting to wander in search for a place to shed it’s skin one last time. When it sheds it’s skin for the last time it will be a chrysalis!

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