Both butterflies and moths go through four basic life stages: egg, caterpillar, pupa, and adult. When they reach the pupa stage, they deal with it in different ways. Butterfly caterpillars become chrysalises. The pupa’s body hardens to help protect it from predators, but they don’t make any additional covering. Moth caterpillars, on the other hand, create a covering (the cocoon) out of silk that then covers the pupa for additional protection.
You might think that all chrysalises and cocoons are the same, but there is actually a lot of variation in their size, shape, and color! Click through the following pages to see if you can guess which species created which chrysalis or cocoon.
Hopefully the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum in Chicago (near Lincoln Park Zoo) will re-open soon.