This tiny pale oval is a soldier butterfly egg. See the darker area at
the tip of the egg? That's the caterpillar's head. A few hours after I took
that picture it hatched. A small bit of the shell is visible behind the
head of the tiny first instar soldier caterpillar:
As the caterpillar grows and sheds it's skin, it changes bit by bit,
until it looks like this fifth instar soldier caterpillar on my thumb.
The day after this photograph was taken, this caterpillar made the
following chrysalis.
Very early on the tiny new caterpillars resemble the more mature
caterpillars.
This soldier butterfly chrysalis is very similar to a monarch or queen
chrysalis.
I'm leaving a bit of space to work with on this page,
because the chrysalis is in my living room, and I'm raising a couple of
soldier caterpillars so I can get better photographs of them as they
grow up.