Butterflies go through four main stages of life. The first stage is the egg stage followed by the larva stage. As a larva, or caterpillar, the future butterfly eats as much as possible. As it grows, it sheds it outer skin, or exoskeleton. This may happen four or five times. After a few weeks, the caterpillar enters the next stage of its life, the chrysalis stage. In the chrysalis, the caterpillar will liquefy into a soup of living cells. Then, it will reorganize into a butterfly.