I talked about your question with my friend Allan Felsot. He’s an insect scientist at Washington State University. He told me cocoons are mostly silk. But they’re usually made by moths. A butterfly ...

Do you know the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon? The short answer is that a chrysalis is made by a butterfly, a cocoon by a moth. Both contain a pupa, the stage between a caterpillar and a ...

When an ant pupa signals its imminent death caused by an incurable infection, worker ants unpack it from its cocoon and disinfect it, leading to its demise.