O the monarch butterflies go through prolonged stages of metamorphoses starting with its larva or caterpillar shedding or molting its skin an amazing five times before the pupa stage you can see a diagram of the monarch life cycle that you can color in here o the caterpillar may eat its shed skin in four of its five molts in the stages referred to as instar. A monarchs brilliant coloring tells predators dont eat me im poisonous the butterflies get their toxins from a plant called milkweed which is their only food source in the caterpillar stage an animal that eats a monarch butterfly usually doesnt die but it feels sick enough to avoid monarchs in the future. Learn facts about the monarch butterflys habitat diet life history and more search the national wildlife federation north america has several dozen native milkweed species with which monarchs coevolved and upon which they rely to complete their life cycle the annual monarch life cycle and migration begins at the monarchs . Monarch life cycle monarch butterfly usa 118 two questions go hand in hand children ask them all the time most monarchs live from two to six weeks as an adult butterfly but the monarchs migration is the key to its yearly life cycle 5th generation dies the newly hatched eggs begin the first generation as they eat their