The female lays small groups of orange jellybean-like eggs on its host plant.

Miniature sized larvae, about the same shape as later instars, hatch in about a week and graze night and day.

[3]As autumn approaches, the adults feed and eventually find places to shelter through the winter.

These toxins help protect these insects from being eaten by visually gifted predators like birds that regularly prey on caterpillars, butterflies, and beetles.

The conspicuous orange and black colors serve as a reminder of a potentially nasty gastronomic misadventure to experienced birds and other predators that may have attempted to make a meal of them.