Transformation - Butterflies and Caterpillars
(And we thought Midlife was hard!)

By Sharon McDonnell (December 2009)

In sorting and selecting Gay's images of butterflies and caterpillars I began to wonder "what exactly happens inside the chrysalis". The answer is incredible.

My image of frivolous beings is gone. I am slack-jawed with what I learn about butterflies (Lepidoptera). The process of transformation is simply amazing-- science fiction couldn't do better. A caterpillars and butterfly have all the same parts but these parts are formed for completely different life stages and purposes. As one biologist said "Caterpillars are all about eating, and butterflies are all about sex"

The caterpillar molts and then instead of creating new skin it makes a chrysalis. It then digests itself. It melts-- all of it, heart, nervous system, mouth....a partial death. Most of the body breaks down into the "imaginal cells", which are undifferentiated -- like stem cells, they can become any type of cell. The chrysalis is a thimble-sized bag of fluid like a culture media. From this soup, in a matter of weeks or so, it varies with season and species, the imaginal cells put themselves back together into a new shape. This process is hormonally regulated, of course....It is impossible for me to imagine what the caterpillar thinks is going to happen as it heads off to make the chrysalis. But, I suppose granting too much psychology to zoology should be done with caution.

And then what it might it feel like to emerge from the chrysalis state and find yourself transformed into a butterfly (the imago)? It is a vulnerable state. Butterflies have to dry out, pump up and harden their wings and establish circulation, make a proboscis (the tube they use like a straw to feed with), and not get eaten.

For a nice verbal and audio description of the process CLICK HERE.

Freedom may start by feeling terrible. Wet wings, whole body aches, spinning head, confusion, disorientation, gripping on to a stick, and then..... after awhile, your wings dry a bit, and you think ... "maybe I will go suck some juice out of a flower and feel better".

You aren't even sure what a flower is really but the whole idea sounds right.