How can you hate a caterpillar and love a butterfly?

You can't.

Some gardeners so love their passionflower vine (Passiflora) that they squirm at the thought of a caterpillar munching it down to nothing.

But that's what caterpillars do. The Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae) lays its eggs on its host plant, the passionflower vine, the eggs develop into larvae or caterpillars, and the caterpillars into Gulf Frits.

Our passionflower vine--which we planted specifically for the Gulf Frits--is now a skeleton. The caterpillars ate all the leaves, the flowers and the stems. What was once a flourishing green plant looks like a criss-cross of brown sticks.

Comedian George Carlin supposedly said "The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity."

And architect-author-designer-inventor Richard Buckminster Fuller observed: "There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly."

And someone named John Grey offered this poetic comment:
"And what's a butterfly? At best,
He's but a caterpillar, at rest."

So, it is. Take a look at the Gulf Frit caterpillar and then check out the Gulf Frit butterfly.

Yes, a hungry caterpillar turned into a magnificent butterfly. 

How can you hate a caterpillar?

You can't.