Have you seen butterfly egg?
Mostly we only notice the caterpillar, the pupa and the adult butterfly but how about the egg?
Butterflies grow through a four-stage process known as complete metamorphosis, changing from egg to caterpillar to pupa and finally to adult butterfly.
Female butterflies lay many eggs during their short life to insure that even a small number of these eggs will survive. Caterpillars (butterfly larva) hatch from eggs. The eggs are usually laid in a protected location on or near the plants that the soon-to-be caterpillar will eat. Most eggs are attached to the plant with a fast-drying glue-like chemical that the female butterfly secretes along with the egg.
We have observed the Plain Tiger Butterfly, when the butterfly is positioned to lay the egg, we tried to see how the egg is being laid onto the leaf.
We know how the butterfly lays the egg after reading many documentations of it. The egg will be popped out from the bottom of their body, like the poop come out. Butterfly will bend their body and touch the bottom of their body onto the leaf’s surface.
If we did not know about the process, we will not know the egg has been laid, as it’s very small, maybe 1-2mm in size, and it’s just like a dot.
As we saw this yellow-white dot, I took few photos of it and enlarge the photos, so we can see the shape of the egg. It’s really nice structure and it can be inspirational for architect.
Here is the egg shapes when it just popped out ( yellow white colour ). It turn into black colour after few days.
It will hatch between 2-5 days.
During our short observation, we found out that the plain tiger butterfly laid the egg mostly on the leaf, but also on the branch, and laid one egg at a time.
Some species lay one egg at a time, others lay eggs in small clusters, while others lays hundreds at a time.
Butterfly eggs come in many shapes and colors. The shapes include spherical, oval, and pod-shaped; the colors include white, green, and yellow. The eggs have a thin, tough shell with raised ribs or pits (reticulations). At the top of each egg is a micropyle, a small pit that marks where the sperm entered the egg. While the egg is developing, air and water enter the egg through the micropyle.
There is a yolk inside each egg that nourished the developing larva. When it is time to hatch, the larva gnaws open the egg shell with its jaws. After hatching, most caterpillars finish eating their egg case as their first meal. After this, the plant upon which the egg was laid will be nourishment.
During the photo taking at nature park, we tried not to disturb the nature process. We did not touch the leaf and kept some space so the butterfly will not be disturbed.
We need to be patient to observe it. We waited quite sometimes around 2 hours to see this process naturally.
As photographer I always want to take best photo but the most important is, I will keep always in my mind “nature will guide me and will give their best if I do not disturb it”.
Reference:
https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/lifecycle/Egg.shtml
