Butterflies have always fascinated me. this garnered a lot of mockery from other boys when I was a child. I was called butterfly boy by a few of my peers through middle-school. This didn’t stop me, I always gathered Monarchs and watched them change. I always wondered if they knew what they were doing. If they knew they were eating to fuel a change, something that would profoundly alter them.
A caterpillar just eats, it’s only aware of what’s right in front of it. When it pupates, like other caterpillars, its coloration acts as camouflage, except for the golden ring. This is where they get their namesake. The gold ring, like a crown, is where they get their royal name. The Monarch.
Another Butterfly that I plant host plants for, is the Black Swallowtail. These guys are fascinating because they have an organ that looks like a snakes tongue called a osmeterium. It reeks of a sweet foul odor to scare off predators, and like the Monarch, they are banded and brightly colored to indicate to birds they are poisonous to eat. The younger caterpillars resemble bird poop, as a form of camouflage as well.
When the Black Swallowtail pupates, their chrysalis is more so camouflaged than the Monarch, resembling wood, or a segment of plant. Their coloration depends completely on where they are pupating.
When any caterpillar pupates, their entire body liquefy and reforms. To me that was always the most fascinating part, but it was equally horrifying. This is the most vulnerable stage. Parasites would infect them and you would see a small hole in the side of a Chrysalis with a white string falling down from it.
The Tachinid fly lays its eggs on the unsuspecting caterpillar. Then when it emerges, it’s similar to that scene from Alien. Only less dramatic.
Something beautiful, hijacked and eaten to feed something grotesque.
There is obviously a metaphor here, about transformation and not knowing what you’re going to be. Or about the parasite, that one little thing left ignored or unnoticed can prevent growth and eat you up from the inside.
Parasites rule the world in a lot of ways. They influence us and we don’t even know it. Toxoplasma Gondii, which is most notable for being the reason pregnant women shouldn’t clean litter boxes, is far more sinister than let on.
In mice and other animals it alters the animals brain to make them less afraid of cats. This seems odd, but it then makes the mice easier to catch for cats. Toxoplasma reproduces in the cats system, it poops it out and in nature contaminates things to be ingested again.
Now what this does to humans is still up in the air, but we all know a “Crazy Cat lady”. Although in studies it shows that acute Toxoplasma cases they are more likely to engage in risky behavior. The NIH found that there was a significant relationship between persons infected with Gondii and traffic accidents.
It makes you wonder about free will. How the simple introduction of a parasite can alter our behavior. Not all changes are for the best, especially when hijacked by another organism.
If the caterpillar can beat the odds, not get infected, not get eaten, and survive the vulnerable pupa stage, it will eclose and emerge wet wrinkled and elegant. Once its wings dry, it will fly. The Monarchs will migrate south, and live their until they return the next year to lay eggs. While the Black swallowtails will actually have chrysalis overwinter and hatch in the spring.
Comments