Imaginal Cells

How does the caterpillar become a butterfly?  The actual process is not as simple as I once imagined it: sort of like those computer techniques that can morph a woman into a lion and then a bird just by lengthening some lines and shrinking others.  Once the caterpillar is safe in its cocoon, its body melts down into total chaos.  In the chaos are found “imaginal cells” which are like the “seeds” of the butterfly.  They begin to grow into specific butterfly parts which begin to connect, finally forming the body and wings of the butterfly.
I don’t remember where I first heard of this.  When I tried to look it up on the internet, I found either extremely scientific articles that I could barely understand, or people who were already using this process as a metaphor for what’s happening on the planet.

This comes from Anodea Judith’s website:
“Within the chrysalis a miracle occurs. Tiny cells, that biologists actually call “imaginal cells,” begin to appear. These cells are wholly different from caterpillar cells, carrying different information, vibrating to a different frequency–the frequency of the emerging butterfly. At first, the caterpillar’s immune system perceives these new cells as enemies, and attacks them, much as new ideas in science, medicine, politics, and social behavior are viciously denounced by the powers now considered mainstream. But the imaginal cells are not deterred.  They continue to appear, in even greater numbers, recognizing each other, bonding together, until the new cells are numerous enough to organize into clumps. When enough cells have formed to make structures along the new organizational lines, the caterpillar’s immune system is overwhelmed. The caterpillar body then become a nutritious soup for the growth of the butterfly.”

This one comes from the website of Skye Thomas
“After a caterpillar buries itself inside its cocoon, it waits to morph into a butterfly.  The caterpillar does not simply shrink a bit and sprout wings.  Instead, it sort of disintegrates into a puddle of ooze within the cocoon.  If we were to open the cocoon halfway through the process, we would not find a half-caterpillar half-butterfly type creature, but a blob of goop.  The goop is made up of a bunch of individual cells that are all basically the same type of oozy cells.  For whatever reason, after the caterpillar has turned into ooze, a new type of cells start appearing.  The original ooze cells are NOT changing into these new cells, but rather the new cells seem to come out of nowhere.  They just appear out of thin air so to speak.”

You can check this out yourself: just search for “imaginal cells”

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