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

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

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 :/

I imagine they feel like “man, I really need to turn to goo” in the same way we are like “man, I really gotta take a shit”