Summary
Highlights
Metamorphosis describes the series of different body forms an animal undergoes during its life stages. Young animals, like tadpoles, can look vastly different from their adult forms, such as frogs, undergoing significant changes like growing legs and losing tails.
Complete metamorphosis involves four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The lava develops into a pupa, often enclosed in a cocoon, which then transforms into the adult. Frogs also undergo complete metamorphosis, but without a cocoon stage. Examples include butterflies, ants, and beetles.
Incomplete metamorphosis consists of three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. Nymphs resemble miniature adults but lack wings and grow through a process called molting, where they shed their exoskeleton. After several molts, they reach the adult stage with wings. Examples include grasshoppers, crickets, and cockroaches.
Complete metamorphosis has four stages (egg, larva, pupa, adult), with the larva looking completely different from the adult. In contrast, incomplete metamorphosis has three stages (egg, nymph, adult), where the nymph looks similar to the adult, just without wings. Molting occurs in incomplete metamorphosis but not in complete metamorphosis.