The monarch butterfly has 7 stages to adult hood but there are only 4 major. The stages are egg, larva/caterpillar, pupa (going inside of a cocoon to transform into a butterfly or chrysalis), and last of all adulthood. During the summer it is breeding time for the monarchs. Females lay about 100-300 eggs during their life. They for 2-5 weeks before mating and lay the eggs of the next generation. The monarchs produce 4 generations through at the summer and the last generation has to travel to Mexico and do not reproduce until February or March as they go north. The last generation is the migratory generation and travels between 2-3 thousand miles to get to Mexico and can live up to 9 months. The life cycle starts when an adult monarch butterfly lays an egg that is super small, on milkweed so they have something to eat when they hatch. They are shaped like ovals. Eggs hatch after about 4 days since they have been laid. The babies in the eggs have to chew their way through the top of the egg to get out and eat the rest of the egg shell when their out. Progressing from an egg to an adult monarch butterfly takes about a month depending on weather. Then the egg will grow into larva. The larva eat milkweed rapidly and have to shed their skin about five times before they pupate because of how fast they grow and then they eat the skin that was shed. Then when they are ready they will wrap themselves into a cocoon or pupate, and come out as a butterfly. In about 5 days the pupa will go from bright green to clear and you will be able to see the wings and it will come out of its cocoon an adult. The coming out of the cocoon is called "eclosian". When they come out their wings are usually wet. They inflate their wings with a fluid that is in their abdomen. This is why they look chunky when they come out and their wings look super small. Then the butterfly's body will go to a normal size. Then it will flap its wings to get them dry. It takes about 2 hours for the Monarchs wings to be fully dried. When the wings are dried and have hardened it will fly somewhere. They will then mate later and lay their eggs when they are ready to. If the female monarch cannot find milkweed plants to lay her eggs on she will wait as long as possible to lay her egg. It is very rare that people see monarch butterflies laying their eggs on other plants. If they lay their eggs on other types of plants that are not milkweed, then the next generation of caterpillars will starve. They will starve because they only eat milkweed plants to grow, other than their skin they shed and their egg shell. After the monarchs have completed the four stages of their life cycle, they have completed complete metamorphosis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc video of a monarch butterflies life cycle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocWgSgMGxOc video of a monarch butterflies life cycle