This article discusses the miraculous process of caterpillars turning into butterflies, known as metamorphosis. Rabbi Samuel Waldman describes this process as one of the most evident miracles of Hashem, noting that similar transformations occur in over 60% of all insect species.
“We will touch upon flies and bees as other examples in a later article bl”n.) In the last article we spoke of the amazing process of the caterpillar first turning into a chrysalis/pupa. So, we have the chrysalis hanging upside down. In as little as 8 days the caterpillar will change into a beautiful butterfly! Here’s what happens,” Rabbi Samuel Waldman indicates.
There are special enzymes in the caterpillar that will start to break down the caterpillar’s body. (If you remember, we had that happen to a small extent during the molting process.) It will break down a very large percentage of its body. (This process is called Apoptosis.)
In fact, if you would puncture the chrysalis during the first few days of the 8-day process, out will come a bunch of thick liquid gook! (In my own bungalow I noticed a pupa under the ledge of my screened in porch. So, first, I took a can of Raid bug spray and sprayed it. It started wiggling away. THEN, I took a pen and punctured it, and out came thick liquid gook. So, it was live liquid gook! Amazing!) So, there’s a large percent of the caterpillar’s body that is being broken down into liquid proteins, yet, “somehow”, miraculously, the body knows what parts to break down, and what parts to leave alone. How does it “know” any of this? (I have no idea.)
The trachea tubes used for breathing aren’t touched, in fact they will be enlarged, reorganized and increased so that they can effectively provide enough oxygen for the new complex functioning butterfly. They need to be able to provide enough oxygen for the muscles that are needed to move the butterfly wings and for the rest of all its new body functions. (Did you know that a Monarch Butterflies wings flap from 5-12 flaps PER SECOND?!)
Its stomach guts that are in the abdomen part of the body are also preserved, but they do shrink down a little in size since the butterfly will not be eating any food anymore. They only drink nectar. Their digestive system needs to be “adjusted” since as a caterpillar it digested leaves, and now it will be just be digesting the sugar of the nectar, and that is accomplished as well. The heart is rearranged and believe it or not, so is the brain, since there’s huge changes in everything that will be going on in the butterfly that wasn’t happening in the caterpillar!
How that happens, it’s absolutely miraculous! However, a large portion of the rest of the caterpillar body does break down into gooky proteins. In fact, those proteins will be recycled into the new organs needed for the butterfly’s body. But how will they get recycled? The answer is that there’s are a bunch of preprogrammed things called “imaginal discs” made of imaginal cells that will recycle all these proteins. (There’s nothing “imaginal” about these discs or cells. They are real things, just with a weird name!)
What exactly are they? Hashem put a bunch of different tiny clusters of cells into the caterpillar’s body. During the earlier caterpillar stage, special hormones (called the Juvenile hormone, ensure that they lay around inactive. Then during the chrysalis/pupa stage the Juvenile hormone is itself pretty much deactivated, which then allows the imaginal discs to become activated. These imaginal cells have BLUEPRINTS in them! Each separate bunch of cells have their own specific blueprints for different organs of the future butterfly in them. Not only do they have the blueprints, they also have the mechanism to actually turn the protein gook into real live working organs! There are imaginal discs that will form the new compound eyes, (the eyes of a butterfly are extremely complex, and bl”n I will write more about them in the next article) other imaginal discs have the blueprints and mechanism to form the new, amazingly beautiful wings with their numerous scales that are attached to them like shingles are on a roof, (more bl”n about the scales that “somehow” paint a beautiful picture on the wings, even though they are all tiny, separate pieces from each other in the next article) and the wings intricate network of veins, different imaginal cells will form the new restructured thorax section of the butterfly with new flight muscles, and they will form the new long slender legs, the new antenna, and the new proboscis, (that’s it’s “straw” like structure that sucks up the nectar.
All these organs come from separate imaginal discs and each take from the liquified proteins and miraculously turn then into all these different organs! However, the discs not only have to form the correct body organ, they must also be formed and placed in the correct place of the body, so that eventually, all the organs can combine into one live working unit. What good is the proboscis, or the wings, if they are in the wrong place?! And even when they are all in their correct places, there still needs to be some way in which ALL these separate organs can combine and as work together as one fully proper functioning butterfly.
So, obviously this process is extremely complicated, and quite miraculous! The proper coordination and synchronization of all these organs involves a very sophisticated network of genetic regulation, intercellular signaling and communication, and tissue morphogenesis and remodeling. It also involves a complex series of cellular interactions and signaling pathways. Whatever all that means (I don’t either know!), you can be sure that these are VERY complex processes working together successfully, to put together a beautiful, living, wonderous Monarch Butterfly! Taking a bunch of caterpillar gook and creating a whole new creature out of it, in about 8 days, what a MIRACLE that is! There’s so much activity going on all at once. All this activity was preprogrammed by Hashem in special “computer chips” known as DNA, RNA and genes, that tell the cells what to do, and give them the ability to actually carry out all those functions. Imagine seeing a bicycle going into a closed box, with nothing going in or out of it, being melted down, and using only those same bicycle materials – and it turns into a helicopter 8 days later! That’s similar to what’s happening during the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into a butterfly! The complication of these actions is mind boggling! It’s as obvious as can be that NOTHING OF THIS SORT COULD HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT. These are miraculous processes that ONLY our great Creator, Hashem, can make it happen. Scientists have no clue how this whole process is possible. In fact, you would be surprised how little scientists know about what’s really going on in the chrysalis/pupa during metamorphosis.
This ends the miraculous process of the transformation of the butterfly into a butterfly. It’s much more complicated than I have written. But it must suffice for our article. The next article we will IY”H, look deeper into the wings and other parts of the butterfly. And finally, we will also IY”H discuss their 3000 mile miraculous migration feat that they do.
(It’s well known that the Tiferes Yisroel, in his pirush on Mishnayos, uses the process of metamorphosis to help us understand how Techias Hamaysim can take place. The caterpillar has basically died, and is reborn, but in a new much more magnificent body that works in a much different, better, and amazing way, as will be with our bodies at Techiyas Hamaysim!)
Once the chrysalis forms, after about 4 days you can start to see the wing structures.
After about 6 days you can see even more.
Then over the next 2 or 3 days, a huge amount of reformation activity is being finished up, and on the final day, the outer layer of the chrysalis becomes clear and you could see the full butterfly inside the chrysalis. (See the picture below) For it to get out of the chrysalis, it pushes out with its two legs. There are pre-fractured lines on the outer chrysalis layer that allows it to be able to break out of the chrysalis with relative ease. Once it breaks out, (it takes about 30-60 seconds for the whole process) the wings are at first tightly folded. Then it begins to pump fluid into the veins of the wings. After about 15 minutes, the wings are at full size. The wings continue to dry out over the next few hours and then they are ready for takeoff! How great are Your wonders Hashem!!
Conclusion
Rabbi Samuel Waldman concludes by marveling at the wonders of Hashem’s creation, noting the miraculous aspects of this process. He promises future articles to explore the butterfly’s wings and migration, further revealing the intricate and wondrous design of nature. For more articles like this, visit his blog Wonders of Creation.