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Animal Themes
Insects
Invertebrates

Metamorphosis of Insects

Metamorphosis of Insects
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   8.37

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    metamorphosis, abdomen, molt, undergo, fully, cold-blooded, functional, external, natural, childhood, final, however, space, adult, experience, longer

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Other Languages
     Spanish: La Metamorfosis de los Insectos

Metamorphosis of Insects   
1     Insects are cold-blooded animals with three pairs of legs, three parts in their bodies (head, thorax, and abdomen), and, usually, two pairs of wings. A hard, external skeleton covers an insect's body to protect it from its predators. This natural shield is called exoskeleton. Beetles, butterflies, ladybugs, and grasshoppers are all insects.
 
2     Adult insects may look quite different from their childhood appearance. That is because insects go through a stage called metamorphosis. Metamorphosis means change of body form, appearance, and, sometimes, even diet. All insects undergo one of the two types of metamorphosis - complete or incomplete.
 
3     Butterflies experience complete metamorphosis. After hatching from eggs, caterpillars look very different from their beautiful butterfly parents! Caterpillars always have a good appetite - they spend most of their time chewing leaves. As they keep eating and growing, their skin becomes too tight! So they shed their skin to reveal a new, soft one beneath with space inside for growing. The process of shedding their skin is called molting. Caterpillars molt several time until they grow to their full size. Then, caterpillars produce a pupa, also called chrysalis, and seal themselves inside. Inside the pupa the whole body is reorganized, and a butterfly emerges. Ladybugs, bees, ants, flies, and moths all go through complete metamorphosis.

Paragraphs 4 to 5:
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