Complete metamorphosis likely evolved out of incomplete metamorphosis. The oldest fossilized insects developed much like modern ametabolous and hemimetabolous insects—their young looked like adults.

One example is the importance of pollinators. It is estimated that only about 3% of insects are pests. Metamorphosis refers to the insect’s life cycle, and how it changes and grows into an adult.

New University of Washington research shows that a regulatory gene named broad, known to be necessary for development of insects that undergo complete metamorphosis, also is key for the maturation ...

It explains how insects differ from other arthropods and highlights their reproductive methods, including incomplete and complete metamorphosis.

These forms are complete and incomplete. Complete metamorphosis is something that butterflies and beetles go through. In terms of the process, the young insect looks completely different from the ...

It’s a change—a metamorphosis—but it is termed “incomplete.” ... in insects with complete metamorphosis, the early stage of the animal evolved later than the adult form.

Complete metamorphosis seems to have arisen in insects only around 350 million years ago, before the dinosaurs. Most researchers now believe that metamorphosis evolved to lessen the competition for ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. On warm summer nights, green lacewings flutter around bright lanterns in backyards and at campsites. The insects, with their veil ...

Complete metamorphosis transforms caterpillars into butterflies, reshaping not only the bodies of the insects but their behaviors and identities. New work reveals in detail for the first time how ...