How long does a caterpillar stay in its cocoon?
Some of the best little spinners of fine silk are the spiders, but spiders are not insects. Many members of the insect world are silk spinners, and some of them use their silken threads for cocoons in which to wrap themselves. Some insects encase their eggs in woven silk, and some caterpillars build tents of silken threads. A large number of insects sleep through the pupa stage: wrapped in cozy blankets of woven silk. Each variety has its own pattern for making the cocoon, its own method of hiding the cocoon and its own time for emerging as an adult insect. The peach tree borer pupates in its cocoon for about a month in early spring. The beautiful polyphemus moth usually stays cuddled in his cozy cocoon all through the winter. The cocoon building caterpillars go through a life cycle of four distinct stages. They begin as eggs, which may hatch after a few warm summer days or remain unhatched through the winter. From the eggs come hungry caterpillars, and these grubby larvae must devour
