The World is Cocooning: Nothing in a Caterpillar Tells you it’s Going to be a Butterfly
“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”― Buckminster R. Fuller
You will be familiar with the symbol of the butterfly to represent metamorphosis, transformation and change. While it is a wonderful symbol of evolution, the scientific detail of this metamorphosis is truly astounding and so pertinent in our world of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.)
After hatching, the caterpillar devours its nutritious eggshell and becomes a veritable eating machine, chomping through as much as one hundred times its bodyweight in a single day. Despite being perfectly happy with its existence, after a while, something deep within the caterpillar signals that it is time for change.
This signal starts as with a deep impulse, an inkling at a cellular level. The cells that initiate the change are known as imaginal discs. Imaginal discs begin life as single-cell organisms within the caterpillar and remain dormant until they suddenly awaken when the time is right. These cells are so different to the cells of the caterpillar that the caterpillar’s immune system rejects them attacking them as invaders.
Despite being rejected, imaginal cells persist and multiply within the caterpillar…
