Examples of incomplete metamorphosis.

For some insects, there is a radical difference between their larval and adult forms. This is especially true for butterflies, which are larval caterpillars and only after transformation become flying insects. Not all insects undergo such drastic changes.

Insects that go through three stages of changing their life cycle have incomplete metamorphosis, while complete metamorphosis has four stages. Insects that have an unfinished metamorphosis life cycle include true beetles, grasshoppers, cockroaches, termites, praying mantises, crickets, earwigs, arthropods, dragonflies, orthopterans, and lice.