They don't exactly build the cocoon. Caterpillars periodically shed their outer skin layer, and the "cocoon" is just one of those layers. Turning into soup is also quite inaccurate. This video explains the process pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RaCURU6A2o
Basically, its like everyday you change into the same somewhat similar shirt and then one day you went to change shirt and suddenly the shirt is not the same shirt but more fabulous shirt then before ?
Nice video. Yes caterpillars have a proto-wing internally before they pupate. But, as they say in the video, it’s a myth that they turn into goo in the cocoon. They don’t.
there is so so much we don't know / can't observe / can't let ourselves realize about nature. animals know and understand far far more than we think -- just because they can't speak doesn't mean they don't feel emotions as strongly as us
I learned this on my first acid trip. Nature is more intelligent than your average person believes, and it sucks that we take it for granted. I wish more people would open their third eye and pay attention to their surroundings.
EDIT: To add to the "there is so much we can't observe" thing, I implore anyone reading this to google the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Our senses, specifically sight and sound, can only pick up a tiny sliver of what's out there. You don't even need psychedelic drugs to understand just how little we can observe as human beings if you understand how radio waves work.
There isn't any way to know. We can test memories they had from one form to the next, but only in one direction. Can't really ask them or probe their brain to find out what they know.
Has metamorphosis physiology been studied in detail with CT scans, electrodes? It sounds like one of those weird things that could really impact biology if understood in depth for things like regeneration and neuron plasticity...but maybe it's too far to be useful to humans :/