As a larva, or caterpillar,the future butterfliy eats as much as possible.As it grows,it sheds it outer skin,or exoskeleton.This may happen four or five times.After a few weeks,the caterpillar enters the next stage of its life,the chrysalis stage.In the chrysalis the caterpillar will liguefy into a soup of living cells. Then,it will reorganize into a butterfly and the metamorphosis is complete.In later parts of the chrysalis stage,you can see the forming butterfly through the chrysalis.