Test the power of your third eye and eighth sense of naturalism.

Test the power of your third eye
and eighth sense of naturalism.

Dr Abe V Rotor

I cling to the leaves on the nether side,

gnawing on its edible part, a parchment I create

to make a shingle out of it which I carry on my back, 

then transfer nearby for the next meal,

and another shingle, until I look like a pagoda 

sans base, moving from place to place, growing,

then I stop and rest; I remain in stupor.

then metamorphose, leaving my domain - 

I am male and I have wings to find a mate;

the female is wingless, she waits for a mate

at her door, lucky for me - for a brief romance,

then she withdraws into her temple

now a maternal nest, and our life cycle is complete.  

What am I?  

   

Obnoxious I look and smell no one dares to get near,

much less to pick me neither by beak nor tongue,   

for my enemies are few, so my friends - if I know;

you see, if you are ugly and dirty no one bothers you,

like anyone else not excluding some humans;

but in my case Nature designed me this way, 

and she thinks I'm beautiful, to me it is a gift of life;

surviving a cruel world.  I rest now and someday

I'll metamorphose into something beautiful 

in the eyes of humans, so beautiful and dainty

no one will ever ask what I was before.

What am I? 

Answers: Cryptothelea heckmeyeri Heyl (pagoda bagworm), will metamorphose into a moth; Papilio alphenor caterpillar on citrus leaves, will metamorphose into a butterfly.  Both belong to Order Lepidoptera.