How to Use pupate in a Sentence

pupate

verb
  • Unlike most butterflies, this species pupates underground.
  • Mature larvae move down the tree in search of a place to pupate and can be trapped in the sticky substance.
    oregonlive, 30 Apr. 2022
  • Groups of the caterpillars begin to move down the trunk and look for a place to pupate in leaf litter or the ground.
    NOLA.com, 23 June 2017
  • The grubs move from deep in the soil toward the surface in the spring to eat roots, pupating in early summer.
    The Editors, Good Housekeeping, 18 June 2018
  • The larvae later drop to the ground to pupate in summer and emerge as adults the following spring.
    Hannah Herrera Greenspan, chicagotribune.com, 9 June 2021
  • The larvae drop to the ground later in summer to pupate and emerge as adult moths the following spring.
    Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 9 July 2022
  • The larvae later drop to the ground in order to pupate in summer and emerge as adults the following spring.
    Tim Johnson, chicagotribune.com, 23 May 2021
  • But before that, some of the larvae drop into soil to pupate in the winter, a process that is supposed to begin in the next few weeks.
    Morgan Krakow, Anchorage Daily News, 31 Aug. 2022
  • The lake is known for thick, black clusters of brine flies by the billions, which pupate in its salty water then gather in dense mats to reproduce on shore.
    Leia Larsen, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Nov. 2022
  • Week 3 Big news this week: One caterpillar had attached himself by silk thread on the underside of a leaf to pupate.
    Larell Scardelli, Good Housekeeping, 8 Sep. 2017
  • When the larvae are about ten weeks old, those not destined to pupate, and thus provide the next generation of mealworms, are sorted, cleaned and steamed to death.
    The Economist, 5 July 2019
  • By autumn, the caterpillars had wolfed down the leaves, pupated and flown away, leaving our thistle fields in tatters.
    Isabella Tree, Time, 3 Oct. 2019
  • During spring, larvae mature and pupate in a cell of soil particles.
    Rita Perwich, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Apr. 2022
  • Some caddisflies build cases out of rocks and shells from their native rivers and streams and pupate inside after sealing them up.
    Liz Langley, National Geographic, 11 Aug. 2020
  • Overwintering larvae deep in the soil move toward the surface in spring to feed on roots, pupating in early summer.
    The Editors Of Organic Life, Good Housekeeping, 26 Jan. 2018
  • One of them turns its caterpillar hosts into undead bodyguards that will defend pupating young wasps that just ate through its body.
    Christie Wilcox, Scientific American, 1 May 2017
  • Quarantined with other members of their strain, the flies mate and lay eggs, which hatch, pupate and reproduce, continuing the cycle.
    Star Tribune, 25 Dec. 2020
  • Plastic tarps or heavy mulch layers in place during nut drop can prevent or inhibit larvae from entering the soil to pupate.
    oregonlive, 25 Oct. 2020
  • Others say raking any leaves up in the fall to get rid of pupating Caloptilia syringella is the way to control their populations.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 12 July 2019
  • The larvae mature in their nasal nurseries, then fall to the ground and pupate in the environment before transforming into parasitic pests.
    Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 6 Apr. 2022
  • Several will work together and mine the tissue between leaf covers, then use their silk thread to roll up leaves, continue eating and finally pupate over the winter.
    Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 12 July 2019
  • In other cases, though, the caterpillar will have already itself begun pupating in its cocoon.
    Matt Simon, WIRED, 30 Oct. 2015
  • Wise, a biologist and a professor at Roanoke College, had been in his campus lab methodically dissecting pieces of goldenrod and collecting the fly larvae that was burrowed within waiting to pupate and emerge, fully formed, into the world.
    Alicia Petska, Washington Post, 13 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pupate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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