Painted Lady Butterfly Metamorphosis, Developing and Emerging Time Lapse

Here we see the final life stages of several Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) Butterflies. Once the caterpillar matures, it spins a silk pad on a twig or other substrate, then suspends itself upside-down, by attaching a special part of its body part at the tail-end called a "cremaster" to the pad. The cremester sticks to the pad much like the hooks and loops of Velcro. In about 24 hours, the caterpillar sheds its final skin to complete the pupation process. Inside the pupa, the caterpillar has ess...