Are there any bug specialists in this environmental forum?

I have a butterfly garden and I think I just interfered with a caterpillar during its change to become a chrysalis and condemned it to an early demise. I just need to know for sure, because I wasn't aware that it was this easy to interfere with the process.

Basically, there were four caterpillars (Polydamas) in the process of changing. Three did within the last 48 hours. The actual process however, of shedding the skin and becoming a chrysalis takes about 6-8 minutes. This morning I saw the fourth getting into the familiar squinch position, and I would have left it alone, but there was a snail heading straight for it. I flicked off the snail and disturbed the branch the caterpillar was on, but just a few seconds worth of disturbance.

Six hours later I came by and found that the caterpillar had shriveled and it was covered in ants. I removed the ants and clipped the branch out that held the caterpillar to remove it to a controlled setting. I doubt it will live.

Anyway, I'm just wondering, is it that easy to interfere with the metamorphose process? I just wonder how we end up with any butterflies at all.

There are many, many parasites around, and if they "dried up and shriveled," it's likely that is exactly what happened.

It's gross, but crack one open and see if there's not another pupae inside.

There are definitely wasps, flies and probably some spiders as well that lay their eggs on catapillers. I've seen some fat, juicy catapillers at the National Arboretum that were INFESTED with parasites in a breeding program to provide some natural pest control.

I don't think snails eat anything but plant matter, so maybe you'd be willing to leave them alone from now on and observe from a distance? Just in case.

First, there was a stream of brown fluid that ran down the branch and as the half caterpillar-half chrysalis body began to decay, I noticed that the back of his head seemed to collapse as if something had punctured it behind the head. I know that when a caterpillar turns into a chrysalis, the insides liquefy on their own, then get reassembled into a butterfly, but I also know that there are insects which can puncture them and liquefy their insides and ingest them that way. I suspect that's what happened. I just can't believe that an insect would attack something that was that much bigger than it, and leave the poor thing still alive for the ants to finish off.