LIFE CYCLE OF A MOSQUITO

MOSQUITO LIFE CYCLE

1. The mosquito life cycle starts when an adult mosquito lays
her eggs on water.
2. The female mosquito first need a blood meal in order to lay
her eggs
3. This creates an egg raft of up to several hundred attached
eggs.
4. These eggs hatch in 24-48 hours releasing the larvae also
called wrigglers.
5. The larva come to the surface and breathe through a siphon.
6. The larva sheds its skin four times during the next several
days.
7. During this time period and between the molts the mosquito
is called an instar
8. After the fourth molt the mosquito changes into a pupa.
9. The pupa is similar to a butterfly chrysalis.
10. The mosquito lives in the pupal case and cannot eat while
there.
11. While in the pupal case the mosquito breathes through two
tubes on its back.
12. After about one week the mosquito emerges from its pupal
case as an adult mosquito.

LIFE CYCLE OF A SEA TURTLE

LIFE CYCLE OF A SEA TURTLE

1. The sea turtle life cycle starts when a female lays its eggs on
a nesting beach. From six weeks to two months later, a
tiny hatchling makes its way to the surface of the sand and
heads to the water, dodging every predator imaginable.
2. From the time the hatchlings take their first swim until they
return to coastal waters to forage as juveniles may be as long
as a decade.
3. When they have grown to approximately the size of a dinner
plate, their pelagic (open ocean) phase comes to an end
and they return to coastal waters where they forage and
continue to mature.
4. Ten to fifty years after hatching, adult sea turtles reach
sexual maturity and are able to mate. Once they reach sexual
maturity they will migrate to beaches around the world to
nest. Only females will come ashore to lay eggs, generally in
the area where they were born.

LIFE CYCLE OF A JELLY FISH

LIFE CYCLE OF A JELLY FISH

1. Jellyfish development occurs in multiple phases. Sperm
fertilize eggs which develop into larval planulae, become
polyps, bud into ephyrae and then transform into adult
medusae.
2. The planula is a small larva covered with cilia. It settles onto
a firm surface and develops into a polyp.
3. The polyp is generally a small stalk with a mouth that is
ringed by upward-facing tentacles. The jellyfish polyp may
be sessile, living on the bottom or on another substrate such
as floats or boat hulls, or it may be free-floating or attached
to tiny bits of free-living plankton or rarely, fish or other
invertebrates. Polyps may be solitary or colonial. Polyp
colonies form by strobilation, in which multiple polyps share
a common stomach cavity. Most polyps are only millimeters
in size. They feed continuously. The polyp stage may last for
years.
4. The next stage is the ephyra, which is a free-swimming
precursor of the final adult stage.

5. The ephyra then develops into a medusa. The medusa is the

life stage that is typically identified as a jellyfish.

SCIENCE PROJECT
ON
LIFE CYCLE OF ANIMALS
1. MOSQUITO
2. SEA TURTLE
3. JELLY FISH