Do Insects Go Through Puberty?

Going through puberty as a teen is hard! We grow taller, voices change, hair grows, and we get more awkward. Is this just a human thing or do insects go through this craziness?

It might be even harder for many insects. Insects that have complete metamorphosis change from a larvae to an adult after going through a pupa stage. The pupa is a hard shell that protects the insect during the change. Much like when teens put on their headphones, shit their bedroom doors, and stop spending time with parents.

Inside this shell, hormones make the insides of the larvae dissolve and tells the insect what it should look like as an adult.

Researchers at the Natural History Museum recorded the change of the blowfly maggot into an adult fly and the transformation is straight out of a sci-fi movie.

Although the whole period spent in the puparium lasts about 10 days in the summer, the changes that visibly transform the organism from legless maggot to an adult with legs, wings and a head occur within just 1.25 hours.

When the immature insects and the adults are similar in appearance, the process is called simple metamorphosis, and the juvenile insects are called nymphs. When the immature insects and the adults have different forms, the process is called complete metamorphosis, and the worm, or grub, like juvenile insects are called larvae. After the last larval instar, the insect changes into a pupa. In this stage, the insect does not feed or move around much. It may be covered by a protective cocoon.

Watch what happens to a caterpillar as it becomes a butterfly in this video from Inside Science.