Larva

a tiny caterpillar emerges in four days, the first thing they eat is the egg shell.  Caterpillars have six jointed true legs and 10 prolegs to help it move from leaf to leaf, and two sets of tentacles on the first and last body segments.  There are six pairs of simple eyes called ocelli on the lower part of the head capsule which will not grow any bigger.  Despite having all those tiny eyes their vision is poor and the tentacles help guide them.  They breathe through a series of holes called spiracles in the sides of their thorax and abdomen. 

For the next 10-20 days (usually two weeks) the caterpillar is an eating machine whose body grows from 1/16” to 2” and increases in weight 2,700 times.  The larva will stop eating four times to molt/shed its too small skin or exoskeleton.  After shedding the caterpillar usually eats the skin then eagerly eats the nearest leaf, moving head and jaws in a top to bottom fashion.  When the fifth skin is tight again eating stops and a search for a safe place begins. 

Once a place is chosen the caterpillar will spin a mat of silk, from a spinneret located on the bottom of the head, on a twig or other high spot.  It then uses its last set of prolegs called claspers to firmly grab the silk mat where it will hang upside down in a “J” shape for a day.  Then it straightens out and begins to twist and turn until the skin behind the head splits and the fifth and last stripped caterpillar skin is discarded.