What is THIS?!

Any guesses?

A microscopic picture of an atom? An abstract piece of art? A piece of fluff I pulled out of my sock?

No, no, and sadly no.

Interestingly enough, this here is a moth chrysalis!

If you remember back to high school biology, moths and butterflies start out as eggs before turning into caterpillars. The caterpillars eventually build cocoons (also called chrysalises), and from inside they will slowly mutate into their final form as a moth or a butterfly.

In other words, this photo is evidence of some small caterpillar that has dangled itself down from a branch, created this stunning piece of evolutionary artwork, and then decided to hide inside it for as long as it needs to metamorphose into a beautiful moth – at which point it will burst forth from its silky sphere, discarding it in the process.

Nature is utterly mesmerising.

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Chrysalis of an unknown species of moth (possibly Urodus sp.), Reserva Nacional Pacaya Samiria, Peru