The two main mobile forms are highly optimized for different tasks: the caterpillar for eating and storing energy, the butterfly for moving long distances and m

The two main mobile forms are highly optimized for different tasks: the caterpillar for eating and storing energy, the butterfly for moving long distances and mating. It’s so elegant and really quite a marvel of evolution. The problem it solves is that the butterfly’s wings are so big they take a vast amount of material and energy to grow. If you imagine an alternate reality where butterflies hatch fully formed from tiny eggs and begin to fly around right away, you begin to see the problem: those winged creatures could never eat enough material to grow the huge wings of an adult butterfly. The caterpillar solves this problem neatly by shedding the wings and just focusing on eating in order to store as much energy as possible. If you think about it, the butterfly is really just an animal that copies the (spatial) lifecycle of wind-dispersed plants. The imago phase (adult butterfly) follows the mobile seeds of a dandelion or maple tree. The caterpillar in turn stays with the rooted plant and feasts on it for material and energy. Butterflies are themselves pollinators of plants which illustrates how valuable a role dispersal is.