The internet is intrigued after watching a video of butterfly pupae that appear to resemble gold at first sight. Pupa is the life-stage of insects in the transformation stage between the larva and the imago.
Parveen Kaswan of the Indian Forest Service shared the eight-second video on Twitter and it has gone crazy viral with over 43,000 views within eight hours of being made available online.
The butterfly pupae appeared similar to pieces of gold as Kaswan described them as the “pupa of Tithorea tarricina” in the caption of his post. Tithorea tarricina, also known as cream-spotted tigerwing, is a species of butterfly found in Mexico and Central and South America.
“No, they are not #gold. They are pupa of Tithorea tarricina #butterflies. The adaptation is to make them survive in #wild. Amazing #nature,” Kaswan said in the caption of his post.
Watch the video here:
No, they are not #gold. They are pupa of Tithorea Tarricina #butterflies. The adaptation is to make them survive in #wild. Amazing #nature. VC Tim. pic.twitter.com/EwTNBCmo0Y
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 17, 2020
Kaswan explained the life cycle of a butterfly in a separate post. Butterflies undergo complete transformation after the female insect lays eggs on leaves and plants. Caterpillars grow inside these eggs that take a few weeks to hatch. In some cases, eggs hatch after the weather turns warm. Caterpillars, thereafter, eat their way out of the eggs and begin feeding on leaves.
After shedding its skin for a few times, caterpillars form themselves into pupae. It is described as a vessel in which the caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly. To change into a butterfly from the pupa may take weeks as well as several months, as per the species of the insect.
During this stage of the life cycle, a hard case of sorts develops around the pupa to protect it from external factors while the organs and body parts of the caterpillar transform into a butterfly inside. The hard case around the pupa opens up after the butterfly is ready to emerge.
Just to understand what Pupa is. Its a part of life cycle of a butterfly. pic.twitter.com/XPkAEeLE1b
— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) May 17, 2020
Meanwhile, Kaswan’s video garnered almost 4,000 likes and over 600 retweets while netizens marveled over the clip in the comments section of the post.
See the comments here:
Amazing
— Nirav Pomal (@pomalnirav) May 17, 2020
Nature keeps surprising us.
— Abhishek Srivastava (@abhi_life25) May 17, 2020
No less than gold indeed.
— Ashfaque Ismail (@ashfaqueismail) May 17, 2020
Unbelievably beautiful.
— Aninda Manna (@AnindaManna1969) May 18, 2020
Beautiful, it’s like gold
— Gayathri (@Kannaninradhai) May 17, 2020
Never seen such lustrous shiny pupa ever, until now.
— Mrinal (@findmrinals) May 17, 2020
Looks like golden foils #WondersOfNature
— Ravindra (@Ravindra9101999) May 17, 2020
Truly Amazing!
— Indiangirl (@TrulyIndiangirl) May 17, 2020
Mind blowing!
— Dhiren (@imdhirendra) May 17, 2020
Pupa seema like gold, the mature one would be a diamond
— Komal Panwar (@Panwar_K06) May 17, 2020
Ati sundar
— Pradeep Kumar_India (@Mitu_1994) May 17, 2020
Fascinating stuff
— Deepender Singh (@irony_spotter) May 17, 2020
Omg..beautiful…more beautiful and precious than gold
— karmic kudi (@Joganindia) May 17, 2020
What do you think of the video?
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