In this activity, students use white butterfly eggs, larvae and pupae to examine the white butterfly life cycle and to compare it with that of a monarch butterfly.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
- observe and discuss the life cycle of the white butterfly
- compare and contrast the white butterfly’s life cycle with that of the monarch
- record and graph caterpillar growth.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
- introduction/background notes
- instructions on what you need and what to do
- discussion questions
- student handout.
Related content
Read more about white butterflies and monarch butterflies.
In this activity, watch a video on rearing moths and then write a ‘how to’ guide on Rearing insects.
Participate in one of the citizen science projects below that have a focus on butterflies and moths:
- The Pieris Project – an international project working on DNA profiling white butterflies to determine their ancestry and origin.
- Ahi Pepe MothNet – a Participatory Science Platform initiative that investigates the distribution and ecology of our native and introduced moth species.
Useful link
Visit the Wikipedia website to see images of the Pieris rapae life cycle.
