What’s Inside A Caterpillar 'Cocoon?' 

I was wondering if a caterpillar technically "dies" when dissolving its body in order to become a butterfly. But if they can actually remember things they've experienced as caterpillars then at least some part of their nervous system probably remains. It's fascinating.

What’s inside a caterpillar cocoon? Hank Green: *A MOTH*

God, their transformation is absurdly fascinating. Never ceases to amaze me that a little sausage creature can reshape its own guts into something that looks completely different, not to mention capable of flight.

Butterly: “They just don’t make insects like they use to. Back in my days when I was just a caterpillar, I had to dissolve myself to grow...”

I had rescued a Caterpillar one day in High School, the school was given new trees to decorate the front entrance. Well in those trees where hundreds of Caterpillars that started to crawl down the tree to turn into Chrysalis. I saw a few being squished by some students so I grabbed one and took it home. I took a small twig with leaves to feed it in case and placed it into a small glass fishbowl and watched them. I later added a long stick for it to climb on. I left for the day and came home to see him upside down. I was excited and witnessed the Chrysalis being shed. While it was a Chrysalis I talked to them and played music mainly a kazoo song. A few weeks pass and I come home to see my Chrysalis bud had emerged and was still hanging upside down. I quickly and carefully moved the container outside to release them. After and hour I saw them testing their wings still upside down. I placed my finger next to them and they climbed on. Soon they perched on top of my finger and after a few test flaps they took off. Nothing like seeing a butterfly experience flight for the first time. I thought they'd leave me and live it's life free but 2 days later I come home and in the backyard I see my Butterfly flying around and after putting my bag down and walking to them, they landed on my shirt saying hello to me. I'd hum the song from the video and they'd land on me almost everyday. After 10 months I knew they'd died but I still see his species around and ever since a few seem to know me and either land on me or fly next to me as I walk. The species for those who want to know is the Mourning Cloak Butterfly which have a lifespan of 11 to 12 months the longest lifespan of a butterfly. Edit: Thank you everyone for all the kind words you've all said. I'd thought this comment would be swept away in the wave of comments but here I see it with over 500 likes! Anyway I acted out in a show of a maternal instinct for the little guy struggling to run from creatures many times larger than them. I guess that my act resonated and impacted the life of a lovely insect who was a major part of my life after school. Once I was trying to sun bath as my skin is rather fair. While I was laying there on a lawnchair my butterfly friend landed and rested on my leg enjoying the moment.

What's inside a caterpillar cocoon? *A Caterpillar*

Damn...I knew puberty was one hell of a change, but this is ridiculous!

“Imaginal discs” are just HM Fly

Why is this the only video I’ve found on this?

People: Butterflies are so beautiful Caterpillar: WHAT AM I A ROACH???!!!

I imagine the first caterpillar to become a butterfly was like, “YOOO!” When it realized it had wings now.

Wow, the animations in this video are really nice and engaging! The script is very informative, and the topic is fascinating, but everyone who helped put together the visuals really did a stellar job! 🦋

A caterpillar who's gonna grow up and be a beautiful butterfly

So caterpillar's literally die to born like butterflies?

If they made all videos like this for learning I think a lot more people would pay attention. I loved this. Very interesting!! I had a butterfly come lay eggs on my first milkweed plant and now I have11 chrysalis hanging and transforming as I write this. The first caterpillar went a day early. Then 9 all went at the same time and then you had this huge giant one that was just still hungry. He literally ate his little heart out. He said. This milkweed is alllll mine. He finally went up and did his thing like a day later. I’m so excited to let 11 little monarch butterflies into the world.

Just imagine that you could dissolve to repair your body and become young again...

They remember the pain they endured to become what they are.

Wonder if it like hurts i mean it gets disolved

"Tumbling, burning with white-hot fire. I plunged into the depths of the abyss. Unspeakable pain, relentless agony, time ceased to exist. Only this torture...and a deepening hatred of the hypocrisy that damned me to this hell! An eternity passed, and my torment receded, bringing me back from the precipice of madness. The descent had destroyed me, and yet I lived. "

Movies: *They shed their wings and fly beautifully* Real life: *They get out, shed their wings, fly. *And have a 50.98% chance of getting snatched and eaten by a bird*

Imagine future humans regenerating and prolonging life and adapting to different environments like caterpillars into butterflies...

"What would you do with power to fly,..?" . Me : *EXCITED* . "How about shredding your skin, and disolving your muscles ? " . . Me : *losess all hopes*

A video that’s just all content It also got the “chrysalis =/= cocoon” thing squared away immediately It taught me something new, too Have a like.

Eat, sleep, rep- Catepillars: RELEASE A FLUID TO DISSOLVE MY WHOLE BODY INSIDE MY CACOON TO TURN INTO A BUTTERFLY

I wonder if caterpillars know what's going on or if they're just as confused as we are.

Disappointed. I thought they were going to show the process happening inside and out.

I'd be interested to know if their 'memories' of caterpillar-life are more like established schemas, or more like true memory-based training associations. A dog will cycle through a variety of learned training behaviours with the specific intent to please its owner and get cuddles and treats. This is different from Pavlov's dogs salivating when they hear a bell being rung, or a person having a lingering phobia of clowns because of someone peering into their cot while wearing a clown mask, when they were nine months old, even though all three are associations of a sort. If a goldfish can learn to drive a vehicle to accomplish a specific objective in the name of getting a treat (this has been done!), surely a caterpillar/butterfly can be studied using a similar principle to find out the answer to this! I mean, a caterpillar and a butterfly can both crawl. I'd imagine such a conserved memory function might be useful for distinguishing and avoiding certain high-risk predator or poison situations.

"Makes you wonder what else can they recall from their younger days." Their caterpillar brothers and sisters getting squished by some kid

'The caterpillar teaches us to work hard and overcome situations,and be a beautiful butterfly' Wow 😃😊🤗

Still horrified from SpongeBob not sorry

caterpillar: I've not even reach my final form yet

Caterpillar : Transforms into Moth* Moth: this isn't even my final form.

Once after bathing, I dried my entire body using a towel. Initially, I felt mild itching and burning sensation. Then, as I spread the towel over a rope, I saw a wet caterpillar without any hair. Moments later, I was in excruciating pain , my body swelled and developed rashes. Today, when I think about it , I see the funny side of it.

What's inside a caterpillar cocoon ? *An octopus*

Finally! it took me so long to find a video where they actually explain what happens inside the chrysalis before butterfly hatches out.

Makes you think what the intermediate stage of the evolution of moths and butterflies were like, like at what point did certain bugs start to harden in order to rearrange their insides and finally develop wings

Great video! In my younger days in the country, I raised black swallowtails and monarchs through their entire developmental cycle; and based on my own observations, you are spot-on, and I appreciate your explanation of the biological process involved.

It reached level 7. It reached level 10. ... It learned Confusion.

Seeing two cute butterflies flying innocently and joyfully around each other, chasing each other is the cutest and purest thing in this world

Back in Kindergarten, we had this kit that had us see the caterpillar transform into a chrysalis in this gigantic tank with sugar water sponges, sticks and leaves, and then transform into a monarch butterfly. It flew around the tank for the rest of the school year until it died. Fascinating experience truly.

do the butterflies remember their lives as a caterpillar

They really make stuff creepy

"Ooohh, I'm your brother, I'm your brother oooh, I'm your brother" (Just an inside joke, I'm not crazy, just a little drunk.)

It's truly astonishing! The last part was mind baffling. I'd love to know more, like how on earth they store this information in a protein soup! If anyone has a link to more information on this, I'd appreciate it.

You've got to wonder how something like this evolved. What the intermediary steps were. How many millions of years it took. Just so fascinating.

Wow!!! I didn't know that the chrystilis was actually part of the caterpillar's own body!!! That is pretty AMAZING!!! 😃

There is nothing more alien than this on Earth! How nature even came up wit this solution? Amazing.

This is how some Pokemon evolve too! Especially Butterfree!

I feel like this will give me nightmares, but I'm going to watch it anyway

2:41 "That's All Thier Reddish Liquid Spill" Are you sure that's not blood 🤔 ???

Im 24 and ive known this for years but for some reason today it hit me how crazy and miraculously this is. An ugly little worm creature curls up and returns being completly unrecognizable and 100x more gorgeous. It alredy knows how to fly, it knows what to do and it does it. Im less interested in the process because thats the caterpillar burden, however the fact that a bunch of cells get together to form this process and life miraculously just happens (in a very unique and rebirthy way) is mind blowing. Im usually against sounding so over the top but for some reason today this blew my mind

Great video! Some major implications of butterfly memory are a) adding to our knowledge of invertebrate memory as a whole, and b) finding out how butterflies keep to their specific host plants to lay eggs on one generation after another without any teaching

Really just one of those things in nature that will always amaze me. It’s so oddly fascinating in every way.

So it semi liquifies itself and puts itself back together into a new form, neat.

Main topic: What's inside a caterpillar cocoon? How all the other kids I share classes with would respond: a turtle

It's cool that caterpillars thought to do this: melt themselves, then reform as flying insects. Super smart--genius!

We just recently got a caterpillar kit for my 6 year old daughter, so we are researching a lot. This video was very informative! We are currently on day 9 and our caterpillars are MUCH bigger then they were 9 days ago and have slowed down a lot. But, they are still on the bottom of the container. Waiting to wake up to them all upside down!

I'm not the only who was generally interested in these and *wasn't* forced to watch this by a teacher?

In terms of raw information i already know all this but i am still FASCINATED by the process of metamorphosis. I mean ive seen a cicada pupa molt before which was crazy, but the fact that caterpillars liquefy themselves on the inside and then pop out as a completely different creature? Wild.

Scientist: “ so What was it like being a caterpillar?” Capterpillar: Scientist: “My god. They remember.”

Amazing video ... I've been raising these since I was 10 years old, and always wondered how the process occurs. I remained a fan ever since. Also, the learning memory the video mentioned is absolutely amazing!

caterpillars are the only true gamers since they can respawn

Scientist #1: „Do you think butterflies remember being a caterpillar?“ Scientist #2: (gets taser) „Let’s find out“

"then it's time to hit the road." Butterfly: "where we're going we don't need any roads...."

3:29 I didn’t even know they lose memory 😂😂

Imagine how a human crisalis metamorphosis would be like

in a paralel universe "What's inside a human skin?"

We are raising monarchs for release and we have 3 that just formed a chrysalis. We are super excited to see the transformation, thank you for sharing this informative video.

"What would you do for the power to fly? How about shedding your skin and dissolving your own muscles?" Me: *Chuckles in Animorphs*

Look guys Metapod is evolving.... is A BUTTERFREE!!!

This explains so much what I am trying to figure out what actually happens during caterpillar's metamorphosis, really!

I wonder how confused the first ever human to own a butterfly had been when his caterpillar changed into a syphilis.

Who else expected a time-lapse “X-ray” footage of the insides of the “cocoon” during its entire course?

This is beyond incredible people the stages that they go through! Wow! Almost like a thing of science fiction.

*To differentiate:* _Cocoon:_ silk coating around a relatively soft pupa of a moth and some other insects. _Chrysalis:_ hardened pupa of a butterfly and rarely some moth types, lacks a silk cocoon. _Pupa:_ any insect’s stage that comes after a larva and is mostly inactive, does not feed. Not all insects have a pupal stage, as true bugs lack them.

Dam I didn’t even know bugs had functional memory

Peter Pan gives us the power to fly, you can fly!

Butterfly: “I’ve been reborn”

Last year I was lucky enough to actually watch a monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis in my tomato garden. A rare opportunity.

Caterpillar:Maked Many Adventures In Life Spiders:Its free real estate

Congratulation your caterpie evolved into a metapod

*i don’t know why this was in my recommended, but I’m not complaining.*

I listened to this on x2 speed, and when I returned it back to normal it was insane how slow he actually speaks.

Crazy how one minute you're walking slow then the next you're flying through the air swerving.

Thank you you've answered a question I've had since I was a child

Imagine that everytime they they do this and they mess up and they're like "Aw man I messed up now I can only taste from my feet"

Of course they remember, Mothra always knows Godzilla is its friend.

I didn't knew Mothra had to suffer to this only to turn into a godess.

Because knowledge is power

i wonder if they see/feel what happens when they go "liquid"

When you are spiritual and butterfly is your spirit animal and you literally experienced ego death before radical transformation 🌻☁️🦋

People : Reincarnation doesnt exist. Butterflies : Allow me to introduce myself.

How to become beautiful (joke) (catterpilar version) 1.born being ugly 2.get a hard life 3.make your self a mango rock 4.get out of it 5.AND BAM YOUR BEAUTIFUL NOW

Why is it "cocoon?" why not call it what it is: a chrysalis?

So it's brain literally turns to mush and come back to pristine working order along with the memories? Fascinating....

I once accidentally peed on a caterpillar. Does this mean, as a butterfly, he remembered being showered in pee and the smell? Poor thing traumatized into adulthood

Oooooooooooh, so that’s what’s inside a cocoon.

First dont know what to say but I clicked fast

Absolutely insane. Imagine if humans were capable of metamorphosis. Nature is nuts.

Title of vid: What’s inside of a caterpillar cocoon. Me: “A bird”