Life Cycles of Animals — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the correct answer for each question.
1. Which animal does NOT hatch from an egg?
A) Frog
B) Butterfly
C) Dog
D) Chicken
A dog does not hatch from an egg because dogs are mammals that give birth to live puppies.
2. How are a frog and a butterfly alike?
A) They both live in water
B) They both have a larva stage
C) They both have wings
D) They both have fur
Both frogs and butterflies have a larva stage — the tadpole for frogs and the caterpillar for butterflies — making them alike in going through complete metamorphosis.
3. Which life cycle has an egg, chick, juvenile, and adult?
A) Butterfly
B) Frog
C) Bird
D) Grasshopper
A bird's life cycle has four stages: egg, chick, juvenile, and adult. This is different from metamorphosis because the bird does not change its body form.
4. What is different about a grasshopper's life cycle compared to a butterfly's?
A) It has more stages
B) It does not have a pupa stage
C) It starts from a seed
D) It has five stages
A grasshopper's life cycle does not have a pupa stage. It goes through only three stages (egg, nymph, adult) instead of four like a butterfly.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the missing word on the line.
1. Baby frogs and baby butterflies both start as larvae, but they look very different.
Both tadpoles and caterpillars are larvae, but they look very different because they live in different environments.
2. A bird's life cycle does not include a pupa stage like a butterfly does.
A bird's life cycle does not include a pupa stage. Birds grow gradually from chick to adult without a dramatic body transformation.
3. A grasshopper nymph molts, which means it sheds its old skin to grow bigger.
Molting means shedding the old outer skin so the nymph can grow bigger. A grasshopper nymph molts several times before becoming an adult.
4. Dogs and cats are mammals, so their babies are born live instead of hatching from eggs.
Mammals like dogs and cats give birth to live young instead of laying eggs, and they feed their babies milk.
5. A frog tadpole loses its tail and grows legs as it becomes an adult frog.
A tadpole loses its tail and grows legs as it changes from a water-dwelling larva into an adult frog that can live on land.