Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Did you know that during the molting stages of the caterpillar, a "juvenile hormone" keeps the insect in the caterpillar stage and will not allow it to enter the chrysalis stage. When the caterpillar has fully grown, it stops eating and crawls away from its host plant to find a safe area for its next change. The hormone is no longer produced, and the caterpillar sheds its skin to reveal its chrysalis.