Lifecycle of a Butterfly Part 3 (Caterpillar to Pupa)

As promised, here is the much awaited photos which Mommy has been procrastinating to put up. The caterpillar we had on our lime tree was getting fatter and one day after our neighbor's caterpillar turned into a pupa, ours did too. Noting that this batch of caterpillars seem to prefer hanging by a hard surface, away from the plant which was its home and food for the first two weeks of its life, Mommy fashioned a box to keep our very fat caterpillar.

It turned into a pupa on 30th July, a day after Mommy put the caterpillar into the box. Kieona and Kierra both had gymnastics practice earlier and we noted that the caterpillar looks like it was turning into a pupa with its shortened and fatter state when we left the house at about 4pm that day. When we got home at around 6pm, it had already turned into a pupa. Daddy described the changing of state as an "explosion". How does the caterpillar covering turn into the pupa like stage? We had totally missed the process. Did it "explode" and just change within seconds or??? Then again, we're glad to be able to deduce that the skin actually came off to reveal its pupa covering state. Check out the photos if you got lost from my explanation.

Caterpillar hanging on the mesh cloth before turning into pupa

It had turned into a pupa! Look at the original skin at the tail end!

Our neighbour's pupa, which had climbed onto the stand for Mommy's pot