Glossary L - O Larvae are young insects which have hatched from eggs and will develop into adult insects. They look very different from the adults with no wings, legs or eyes and may even live in different habitats to the adults. For example, mosquito larvae hatch and develop in water, but live above the water level when they develop into adults. Insect larvae form a hard shell, called a 'pupa', and develop into adult insects inside. Every living thing has a natural life cycle of birth, life and death and for some organisms this involves a changing form.
Some life cycles take place in just a few days, others take place over hundreds of years.
The human life cycle generally lasts between 65 to 85 years of age and the stages in our cycle include birth, childhood, teenage years, adult middle age, old age and death. Mammals are a group of animals with backbones who feed their young on milk, can maintain their own body temperature and have four limbs. Mammals range from the tiny mouse to the gigantic 30m blue whale. Animal Fact Sheets numbers 5 to 13. Marine mammals have special adaptations to enable them to cope with the low temperature in the sea.