Where Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs? (7 Cool Egg Deposition Facts)

Seeing butterfly metamorphosis is an amazing thing. You can observe the growth of the butterfly eggs to the end if you can find a common place where the butterfly lays their eggs.

Where do butterflies lay their eggs? Each butterfly species has a different way of laying eggs. Some butterflies lay their eggs under the leaves. Others lay them on the upper side. After you find where the leaves are used for laying butterfly eggs, you can take them to see the beautiful metamorphosis process.

After knowing many types of butterflies, we must know about how to lay their eggs butterfly. Let’s read this article to the end.

Where Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs? 

The butterfly puts its eggs in the leaves. Some are above, and others are under the leaves. How to put it is also different for each species. Some put one egg in one leaf. Others will put several to hundreds of eggs in one leaf.

Butterflies must put their eggs in specific plants because not all plants fit into their category. If female butterflies don’t find the right plant, the caterpillar may starve to death. Butterfly caterpillars do not just eat plants, only a few species that they want to eat.

For example, butterfly monarchs put their butterfly eggs on milkweed. If the milkweed garden can meet the needs of the butterfly monarch, the caterpillar will grow to its full potential until its final stage.

In What Place Does A Butterfly Usually Lay Eggs?

Butterflies will put their eggs in host plants. These plants will be different for each butterfly species and ensure the caterpillar will immediately eat the leaves around its body. Female butterflies can place stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit.

Many people make a special garden for the butterfly in laying their eggs. A garden with lots of flowers will provide the butterflies with nectar and a good place to store their eggs.

Where do butterflies lay their eggs? There are different reasons why butterflies put their eggs down the leaf or on the top of the leaf. Eggs under the leaf have a function to avoid direct sunlight. The eggs will dry and avoid the rain. When it rains, many eggs are knocked out of the leaves.

Butterflies that put their eggs on the top leaves are sure that the eggs have been well protected. The eggs have a white shell to reduce the heat and reflect sunlight.

Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs Where They Were Born?

When they reach the butterfly stage, male and female butterflies focus on mating and reproduction. If the caterpillar’s job is to eat until the next phase, the female butterfly will look for a suitable mating partner and plants for laying their caterpillar eggs.

No female butterfly laying their eggs immediately after they enter the butterfly stage. They have to find a male butterfly to produce eggs. Not all adult stages are for female butterflies laying eggs. Sometimes some die and still leave eggs in their bodies.

Where do butterflies lay their eggs? After looking for a suitable plant for caterpillar food when it hatches, the butterfly will put it in several places such as leaves, stig, fruit, and flowers.

Where Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs Kids?

The butterfly can lay hundreds of eggs in its lifetime. They can move from one garden to another as long as the plant to lay eggs is suitable for them. Butterfly eggs are more often found in the leaves with eggs pale yellow or green in color.

The place to put eggs is devoted to their food when they enter the caterpillar stage. The pupa or chrysalis don’t eat, so when the caterpillar has to eat enough to survive.

The pupae need twigs for hanging place until they enter the butterfly phase. Many people want to see the process from pupa to butterfly. Some collect several types of the butterfly as pets, and some people want to see the metamorphosis process for research.

Do Butterflies Lay Eggs In Dirt?

Some butterfly species put their eggs in dirt or soil. If you see any butterfly sitting on the ground for a few minutes, that’s when they lay their caterpillar eggs.

Although this method can be dangerous for butterfly eggs, the female butterfly immediately lays some eggs, unlike species that lay one egg at a time.

Different species will show you how to lay the eggs differently. Some butterflies randomly lay their eggs on tall grasses. Some have to meet certain specific requirements.

There is a distinct advantage when butterflies lay their eggs on dirt. One of them is avoiding the marauding ants. Although exposed to direct sunlight, the soil structure can cool the temperature of the eggs.

Where Do Monarch Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

Monarch butterflies put their eggs in milkweed leaves. The butterfly caterpillars will eat milkweed leaves to grow. It is an extraordinary butterfly that migrates up to thousands of miles away.

Where do butterflies lay their eggs? The characteristics of Monarch’s egg are one in each leaf. It is either at the bottom of the leaf or near the corner at the top of the leaf.

The egg size is around the pencil tip with an off-white or slightly yellow color with longitudinal ridges from top to bottom. The hatching time of the monarch’s eggs is four days after placement.

The egg-laying process takes between two to five weeks with a total of 300-500 eggs. A record that said a monarch butterfly can lay up to 1179 eggs.

Where Do Swallowtail Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

Swallowtail butterflies have yellow-colored eggs and are shaped like spheres. You can find this butterfly species in the leaves of fennel, dill, rue, and parsley.

In some of these plants, there are many predators such as spiders, ladybugs, and wasps that will eat swallowtail eggs shortly after being placed on the plant.

The eggs that still have their contents will be darker in color than those that are empty because they have been eaten by predators. If you find swallowtail eggs, you can cut some sprigs of plants and place them in a jar.

It only takes 4 days for the eggs to hatch and two days to develop into a large caterpillar. Leave the caterpillar alone and eat the plant until it runs out.

Where Do Painted Lady Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

The painted lady butterfly puts its eggs on weedy hosts, such as cheeseweed, star thistle, cocklebur, and Plantago. Sometimes painted lady butterflies put their eggs in sunflowers which can damage your garden and stand losses.

The painted lady butterfly is a species that migrates annually to hundreds of miles for several days. You will not be a problem if you see adult butterflies that want to take nectar from your sunflowers.

If butterflies only take nectar, the plant will get many benefits. It’s different if the butterfly puts their eggs and the larvae grow on the sunflower. It can damage the plant almost completely.

Where Do Cabbage White Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

As the name implies, cabbage white butterflies will lay their eggs on cabbage or other brassicas. You can find the eggs at the bottom of the leaves. If they have become caterpillars, they are pests and ready to eat whatever is in front of them.

Some white caterpillar cabbage will eat up to the hearts of the cabbage and can cause severe damage to your crop.

Many people prefer prevention rather than letting the cabbage white butterfly put their eggs. If there is a butterfly species that puts its eggs under the leaves, we will not find them directly. It can be found when we turn each leaf and get rid of it.

Where Do Red Admiral Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

Red admiral butterflies will lay their eggs on the top of the young nettle leaves. If the butterfly lays its eggs in the summer, the eggs can hatch 7 days later. After hatching, the caterpillar will make the leaf as their tent.

The red admiral butterfly eggs are green to cream in color, and there is a small hair covering the entire egg. The green color makes the eggs camouflage with the leaves to avoid predators. If the caterpillar gets enough food, its length can reach 3.5 cm.

Where Do Peacock Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

Peacock butterfly has characteristic wings with azure eyes and stunning color. It is one of the most popular and common butterflies in the UK. It will lay its eggs after completing its hibernation on the underside of stinging nettle leaves.

Butterflies will lay their eggs in layers to avoid the birds when looking for food. The caterpillar color of this species is black with spikes and white specks. The peacock butterfly is one of the species that have a longer lifespan. They can live between 11 months to 1 year more if they can survive hibernation.

Where Do Black Swallowtail Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

The black swallowtail caterpillar requires proper nutrition from the carrot family, such as parsley, dill, fennel, and carrot. The butterfly will be hovering around the plant for a few seconds for lay their eggs.

If you look closely, you can see how well the butterfly curls up their abdomen while laying the egg and attaching it to the plant. The color of the eggs is off-white or yellow. As the eggs develop, they will turn black before hatching. Time to hatch is about 3-7 days.

Where Do Yellow Swallowtail Butterflies Lay Their Eggs?

The yellow swallowtail, better known as the tiger swallowtail, is a butterfly with yellow wings and bluish scales in the bottom edges of the hind wings. This species lays its eggs on host plants, such as black cherry, tulip tree, and sweet bay magnolia.

The caterpillar has a brown and white color and is almost the same color as bird droppings. As they grow, the caterpillars change color to green with yellow, black, and blue false eyespots that make this butterfly’s eye color very colorful.

What Kind Of Plants Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs On?

Female butterflies have their criteria for placing their eggs in the host plants. To find out where butterflies lay their eggs according to the species, the table below will make it easier for you to distinguish the location of the eggs according to the species.

Final Verdict – Where Do Butterflies Lay Their Eggs

Each butterfly species has a different way of laying its eggs. Some put one egg for each leaf on the top of the leaf. Others put it on the bottom of the leaf to avoid the rain. Some put their eggs in dirt or soil, and some put their eggs in fruit or flowers.

There are various ways to drop eggs for butterflies. Look at the butterfly egg deposition research to understand more. Some put tens or hundreds at once, some put randomly on the plants they wanted. It all depends on the female butterfly which will determine whether the plant used as a host is suitable for caterpillar food.

The hatching time of the egg will vary depending on the sunlight it gets, as well as the type of egg. Some eggs cannot stand direct sunlight, others have special layers to withstand sunlight.

As a pet lover, make sure to learn about pet more and give your pet butterfly a good and comfortable life!

Rajkumar Ravichandran

Welcome to Learn About Pet. My name is Rajkumar Ravichandran and I love all pets, travel, and amazing food. I write about my passion and personal experience caring for multiple pets in this blog! ❤️