In polymer chemistry, polymerization is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many forms of polymerization and different systems exist to categorize them.
The thistle caterpillar is the larval stage of the painted lady butterfly. The adult insect migrates into Iowa each year from Texas and Mexico. Eggs are laid on both thistle and soybeans. The caterpillar is easily identified by the spines that resemble Christmas trees that have lost all their needles.
A Monarch caterpillar can eat enough Milkweed in one day to equal its own body weight. Just 9 to 14 days after hatching from its eggs, a caterpillar will be about 2 long and fully grown. A caterpillar has eight pair of legs (three pair of true legs on its thorax and five pair of prolegs on its abdomen). A monarch caterpillar sheds its skin five times during the larval stage.