# Metamorphosis
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 23, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278 "2005-08-23T16:33:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nh076](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nh076)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/1 "2005-08-23T16:33:09Z")
Does a caterpillar die when it turns into a butterfly…? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/2 "2005-08-23T16:39:35Z")
Say what? No, it does not. Why would you think it would? 😕
> [@wiki](#):
>
> When the larva exceeds a minimum weight at a particular time of day it will stop feeding and begin “wandering” in search of a suitable pupation site, usually the underside of a leaf. The larva transforms into a pupa (chrysalis), which then transforms into a butterfly by metamorphosis. To transform from the miniature wings visible on the outside of the pupa into large structures usable for flight, the pupal wings undergo rapid mitosis and absorb a great deal of nutrients. If one wing is surgically removed early on, the other three will grow to a larger size. In the pupa the wing forms a structure that becomes compressed from top to bottom and pleated from proximal to distal ends as it grows, so that it can rapidly be unfolded to its full adult size. Several boundaries seen in the adult color pattern are marked by changes in the expression of particular transcription factors in the early pupa.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/3 "2005-08-23T16:40:17Z")
No, it doesn’t. The catepillar and the butterfly are the same animal…one is just a juvenile form, the other is an adult form. People go through changes when we mature too…our sexual organs develop, hair starts growing in places there weren’t hair, men’s voices get deeper, breasts develop in women, etc. The physical changes the butterfly goes through are just more extreme.
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### Author:  [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/4 "2005-08-23T17:18:32Z")
No Gregor Samsa?
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/5 "2005-08-23T17:33:17Z")
I would say so. I died when I went through puberty. What you see now, is just a ghost within the machine.
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### Author:  [@jawdirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jawdirk)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metamorphosis/318278/6 "2005-08-23T17:38:23Z")
I’d like to expand this question:
Are there cells within the chrysalis that are killed (e.g. lysed or absorbed by other cells), or do the individual cells peacefully transform into butterfly cells?