What triggers the metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a butterfly?
In: Biology
Hormones– or more specifically the lack of them. The caterpillar produces what we call a juvenile hormone. When it stops producing that, it’s time to build a cocoon, where other hormones begin getting produced and trigger its metamorphosis, just like the hormones that cause humans to grow and go through puberty and all. Even in the chrysalis when it’s nothing more but goo, that goo is made of cells and those cells produce and respond to hormones.
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