How does the caterpillar become a butterfly?\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Once the caterpillar is safe in its cocoon, its body melts down into total chaos.\u00a0 In the chaos are found \u201cimaginal cells\u201d which are like the \u201cseeds\u201d of the butterfly.\u00a0 They begin to grow into specific butterfly parts which begin to connect, finally forming the body and wings of the butterfly.
\nI don\u2019t remember where I first heard of this.\u00a0 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\u2019s happening on the planet.<\/p>\n
This comes from Anodea Judith\u2019s website<\/a>: This one comes from the website of Skye Thomas<\/a> You can check this out yourself: just search for \u201cimaginal cells\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How does the caterpillar become a butterfly?\u00a0 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 … Continue reading
\n\u201cWithin the chrysalis a miracle occurs. Tiny cells, that biologists actually call \u201cimaginal cells,\u201d begin to appear. These cells are wholly different from caterpillar cells, carrying different information, vibrating to a different frequency\u2013the frequency of the emerging butterfly. At first, the caterpillar\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s immune system is overwhelmed. The caterpillar body then become a nutritious soup for the growth of the butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cAfter a caterpillar buries itself inside its cocoon, it waits to morph into a butterfly. \u00a0The caterpillar does not simply shrink a bit and sprout wings. \u00a0Instead, it sort of disintegrates into a puddle of ooze within the cocoon. \u00a0If 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. \u00a0The goop is made up of a bunch of individual cells that are all basically the same type of oozy cells. \u00a0For whatever reason, after the caterpillar has turned into ooze, a new type of cells start appearing. \u00a0The original ooze cells are NOT changing into these new cells, but rather the new cells seem to come out of nowhere. \u00a0They just appear out of thin air so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n