The Change to the Chrysalis
(See plate, [pages 32-33].)
A week or ten days after the last moult of its caterpillar growth the larva commonly becomes full fed and ready to change to the chrysalis state. The details of the way in which this is accomplished vary greatly with different butterflies, as will be noted in the stories of many species later in this book. In general, however, the caterpillar provides a web of silk which it spins against some surface where the chrysalis will be secure and in this web it entangles its hind legs. Sometimes there is the additional protection of a loop of silk over the front end of the body. After the legs have become entangled the caterpillar hangs downward until the skin splits open along the median line of the back and gradually shrinks upward until it is almost free, showing as it comes off a curious creature which has some of the characteristic features of a chrysalis. It is seldom at this stage of the same shape as the chrysalis. When the caterpillar's skin is nearly off this chrysalis-like object usually wriggles its body quickly in a manner to entangle a curious set of hooks attached to the upper end in the web of silken thread. This hook-like projection is called the cremaster, and it serves a very important purpose in holding the chrysalis in position.
Swallowtail Chrysalis, showing (b) the loop of silk over thorax. (After Riley)
As soon as the cremaster is entangled in the web the cast skin usually falls off and for a very short period the creature hanging seems to be neither caterpillar nor chrysalis. It is in fact in a transition stage between the two, and it very soon shortens up and takes on the definite form of the chrysalis, the outer tissues hardening into the characteristic chrysalis skin.
From the fact that this chrysalis skin shows many of the characteristic features of the future butterfly it is evident that the change from the caterpillar to the butterfly really began during the life of the larva. The nature of the process by which this change takes place has long been a puzzle to scientists. For the making of a butterfly is one of the most wonderful phenomena in the outer world, and it has challenged the attention of many acute observers. Some two centuries ago the great Dutch naturalist, Swammerdam, studied very carefully the development of many insects, especially the butterfly. He found that if he placed in boiling water a caterpillar that was ready to pupate or become a chrysalis, the outer skin could easily be removed, revealing beneath the immature butterfly with well-developed legs and antennae. From these observations he was led to believe that the process of growth was simply a process of unfolding; that is, as Professor Packard has expressed it, "That the form of the larva, pupa, and imago preëxisted in the egg and even in the ovary; and that the insects in these stages were distinct animals, contained one inside the other, like a nest of boxes or a series of envelopes one within the other." This was called the incasement theory and it was held to be correct by naturalists for nearly a century. It was discredited, however, about a hundred years ago, but not until another fifty years had passed was it definitely replaced by another and much more convincing theory propounded by Weismann.
According to Weismann's theory, which is now well-established, the process of development internally is a much more continuous one than the external changes would indicate. So far as the latter are concerned we simply say that a caterpillar changes to a chrysalis and a chrysalis to a butterfly, the transition in each case requiring but a very short time. Internally, however, it has been going on almost continuously from the early life of the caterpillar. The various organs of the butterfly arise from certain germinal disks or "imaginal" buds, the word "imaginal" in this case being an adjective form of imago, so that the imaginal buds are really simply buds for the starting of growth of the various organs of the imago or adult. As the caterpillars approach the chrysalis period these imaginal buds rapidly develop into the various organs of the butterfly. This process is helped along by the breaking down of many of the tissues of the larva, this broken-down tissue being then utilized for the production of the new organs. About the time the chrysalis is formed this breaking-down process becomes very general, so that the newly formed chrysalis seems largely a mass of creamy material which is soon used to build up the various parts of the butterfly through the growth of the imaginal buds.
The Change to the Butterfly
(See plate, [pages 32-33].)