This presentation will be about monarch butterflies and their life cycle.

The monarch butterfly's life cycle begins with an egg. A grown adult monarch butterfly lays its eggs on a plant called milkweed. The female will usually lay her eggs underneath a leaf near the top of the plant, which is considered to be a safe place. Milkweed is the food that the caterpillar will need to eat when it hatches from the egg.

Monarchs usually lay only one egg at a time, and they do not need to care for the egg. They may lay many eggs over a period of a few days, but each one will be laid alone. It will hatch about four days after it is laid.

When the egg hatches, a larva emerges. You can also call it a caterpillar. Monarch caterpillars have a distinctive set or yellow, black, and white markings, as you can see in the picture.

The caterpillar will eat the milkweed, which is the plant that it was hatched on. This is the time when the caterpillar does most of its growing. It does nothing but eat and grow. It will take very few breaks, even for resting.

As the caterpillar grows it will become too large for its skin. It molts or sheds its old skin, revealing new skin underneath. This happens over the course of 9 to 14 days before the caterpillar will enter the next stage of development.

This caterpillar is getting ready to form a chrysalis, also known as a cocoon. You will know that it is ready to do this when it attaches itself to the milkweed plant, and is hanging upside down in a J shape. Soon it will create the cocoon that will surround its body to allow it to change into a butterfly.

The caterpillar has now created its chrysalis. When it was first created, the chrysalis or cocoon is a green color. Sometimes you can see through it slightly, and if so you can watch as the caterpillar changes over time. Monarchs can spend anywhere from 8 to 15 days inside this chrysalis.

With the caterpillar has just about completed its transformation, the chrysalis will start to darken in color and become more transparent. It will look almost black, and you may be able to see the butterfly's wings through the outside of the cocoon.

When the monarch butterfly is ready, it will emerge from the chrysalis. It will be wet when it first comes out, and will need to take some time to stretch its wings and to let them dry.

Once the wings have had time to dry, the butterfly is ready to fly away. Now that it is an adult, it will be able to lay its own eggs and the life cycle begins again.