Early Stages of Psyche butterfly

The female butterfly lay eggs singly on the underside of the leaves of host plant. Initially, the egg is in bluish green color and changes to pale yellow when matured. It takes about 3 days to hatch.

Eggs of the Psyche butterfly

Early Stages of Common Mormon

Common Mormon; Egg to first instar

The egg takes about 3-3.5 days to mature. The head of the young caterpillar is faintly visible when it is fully matured and the caterpillar eats the top of the egg shell to come out and then eats the rest as its first meal.

Early Stages of Mottled Emigrant

The egg hatches after about 2-3 days and the caterpillar emerged shows a white color for about 1 hour and turns to greenish color with a transparent body. The initial length of the first instar caterpillar is about 3mm which gradually grows up to 5mm within 1-2 days. 

Early Stages of Glassy Tiger

Glassy Tiger; Female butterfly resting on young shoot of its host plant

The female butterfly lay eggs singly on the immature leaves of larval host plant; Dregea volubilis [Linn.f.]. Freshly laid eggs are nearly oval in shape with slightly pointed end. It is often laid on underside of the leaves or young shoots of the larval food plant.

Glassy Tiger; Development of egg

Early Stages of Common Leopard

The larva of Leopard butterfly usually feeds on immature to middle age leaves of host plant.

The female butterfly lays eggs on the immature leaves or young shoots of host plant. It takes about 2-3 days to hatch. The newly hatched caterpillar eats its egg shell as the first meal. It (which is not shown here), is having a black head capsule and yellowish body. Initially its body length is around 1.5 mm which increases up to 3- 3.2 mm before moulting to 2nd instar. It takes about 2 days for 1st instar caterpillar to reach the second instar. 

2nd and 3rd instar caterpillars of Leopard butterfly