pupa vs. chrysalis

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

I alway thought the difference was that:

Pupa is the overall rest stage whether chrysalis or cocoon, it seems that a 
forced correlation of this life stage to butterfly or moth is out of place, 
unless one is trying to be an elitist (butterflies have a special word, bla 
bla, just because they are butterflies, bla bla) or something like that...

(1) Cocoon was the case in which the pupa is shielded where leaves an other 
material from the environment or even produced such as silk shielded the 
former larval skin exposed
(2) Chrysalis was the case in which the pupa had no such protection as the 
cocoon does, especially applicable when glossy in appearance

Regarding etymology, which is simply a guide as words are determined by 
usage, it kind of follows from Anne's comment about gold decoration, though I 
would be much more inclined to disagree on the detail that it was not the 
trimming as implied and more the actual glaze the skin proteins took on in 
their transformation which leads to the "gold" tinge described by the Semitic 
roots of the "chryso" prefix.  Plus, I would suggest that skippers have 
plenty of representive decorative bare pupae, but I am not a larval kind of 
guy to back that up with specific examples.

Kind of reminiscent of the proboscis / tongue debate a few years back but let 
dead animals R.I.P...

Happy butterflying...Doug Dawn
Monterrey, Mexico
stelenes at pobox.com



En un mensaje con fecha 10/20/2001 5:51:03 PM Central Daylight Time, 
viceroy at GATE.NET escribe:

<< "Stanley A. Gorodenski" wrote:
 > 
 > I always thought of 'chrysalis' applying to butterflies also, but now
 > that the subject is brought up, it somehow doesn't seem to fit a
 > skipper.
 > 
 
 The word chrysalis refers to the gold decorations which many butterfly
 pupae sport.
 I think skippers probably don't have those sparkly stripes and spots. >>

 
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