This article is about the biological process.

For the Franz Kafka novella, see The

Metamorphosis. For other uses, see Metamorphosis (disambiguation).

A dragonfly in its final moult, undergoing

metamorphosis, it begins transforming from its nymph form to an adult
Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth
transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the
animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation.
[1]
Some insects, fish, amphibians, mollusks, crustaceans, cnidarians, echinoderms,
and tunicates undergo metamorphosis, which is often accompanied by a change
of nutrition source or behavior.[2] Animals can be divided into species that undergo complete
metamorphosis ("holometaboly"), incomplete metamorphosis ("hemimetaboly"), or no
metamorphosis ("ametaboly").[3]
Generally organisms with a larval stage undergo metamorphosis, and during metamorphosis
the organism loses larval characteristics. [4]

Etymology[edit]
The word metamorphosis derives from Ancient Greek μεταμόρφωσις, "transformation,
transforming",[5] from μετα- (meta-), "after" and μορφή (morphe), "form".[6]

Hormonal control[edit]
In insects, growth and metamorphosis are controlled by hormones synthesized by endocrine
glands near the front of the body (anterior). Neurosecretory cells in an insect's brain secrete a
hormone, the prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH) that activates prothoracic glands, which
secrete a second hormone, usually ecdysone (an ecdysteroid), that induces ecdysis (shedding
of the exoskeleton).[7] PTTH also stimulates the corpora allata, a retrocerebral organ, to
produce juvenile hormone, which prevents the development of adult characteristics
during ecdysis. In holometabolous insects, molts between larval instars have a high level of
juvenile hormone, the moult to the pupal stage has a low level of juvenile hormone, and the
final, or imaginal, molt has no juvenile hormone present at all.[8] Experiments on firebugs have
shown how juvenile hormone can affect the number of nymph instar stages
in hemimetabolous insects.[9][10]
In chordates, metamorphosis is iodothyronine-induced and an ancestral feature of
all chordates.[11]
Insects[edit]

Incomplete metamorphosis in the grasshopper with

different instar nymphs. The largest specimen is adult.
All three categories of metamorphosis can be found in the diversity of insects, including no
metamorphosis ("ametaboly"), incomplete or partial metamorphosis ("hemimetaboly"), and
complete metamorphosis ("holometaboly"). While ametabolous insects show very little
difference between larval and adult forms (also known as "direct development"), both
hemimetabolous and holometabolous insects have significant morphological and behavioral
differences between larval and adult forms, the most significant being the inclusion, in
holometabolus organisms, of a pupal or resting stage between the larval and adult forms.

Development and terminology