Naturalists in the 16^th century believed that the caterpillar completely die and are reborn in their most perfect and beautiful form as a butterfly.

“the old has passed away; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

 My understanding of the butterfly pupation stage was probably always that the little butterfly enters the cocoon where it sprouts little legs and arms and it flies away.  But if you looked inside a chrysalis, you would not find a caterpillar or a butterfly—you would mostly find a weird slime.   Amazingly, what actually occurs during pupation is that the butterfly MELTS into a GREEN GOO, from which the butterfly emerges. Nobody really understands how it happens (seriously).
A professor at Georgetown did some interesting research with luna moths hoping to find out how much of the caterpillar stage the adult moth remembers after its transition.  She exposed the caterpillar to a scent (plant based, described as smelling like nail polish removed), every time the caterpillar was exposed to the scent, it would get zapped (scent/zap/scent/zap) until it feared the smell.  When the caterpillars pupated and emerged butterflies, they still feared and avoided the scent! So! We can see there are memories that make it out of the goo!
BUT ALSO, most magnificently, when you look at the structure of the chrysalis itself, you can see tiny translucent adult body parts embedded in its walls.  These body parts originated from INSIDE THE CATERPILLAR’S BODY. The caterpillar had been growing and carrying the adult parts within itself as it grew.
                so there is this interesting continuity on both sides and you can see how the story of the chrysalis is not only about what the caterpillar carries into the future, but also what of the future already lives within the caterpillar.