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Other than "to emerge", "to come out" or "to climb out", is there a specific verb that means "to emerge out of a chrysalis" or "to emerge out of a cocoon", like there is "to hatch" for "to emerge out of an egg"?

psmears
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asoundmove
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  • @Josh61 I've edited my answer to include usage from academic contexts, even though I'm not sure what that has to do with the question. Hopefully that helps you. Enjoy! – Kevin Workman Jun 21 '16 at 18:15
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    @Josh61 Fair enough, I didn't see that in the original question. Either way, Google Scholar returns a bunch of interesting results for eclosion! I don't think your answer was really wrong, so I don't think you should have deleted it, but that's up to you. – Kevin Workman Jun 21 '16 at 18:26
  • @KevinWorkman - don't worry, enjoy the upvotes:) –  Jun 21 '16 at 18:30
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    I'll echo Kevin, Josh, I liked your answer, it just happens to have been overtaken by one that matched my question more closely. I think that your answer still belongs here as the beauty of the English language is that it is multifaceted - there are at times more scientific words for things that have more accessible words for every day usage. – asoundmove Jun 21 '16 at 18:32
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    "Run for political office" seems to be a popular option these days. – User1000547 Jun 21 '16 at 20:13

2 Answers2

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You might be looking for eclose:

(of an insect) emerge as an adult from the pupa or as a larva from the egg.

From wikipedia, emphasis mine:

Like other types of pupae, the chrysalis stage in most butterflies is one in which there is little movement. However, some butterfly pupae are capable of moving the abdominal segments to produce sounds or to scare away potential predators. Within the chrysalis, growth and differentiation occur. The adult butterfly emerges (ecloses) from this and expands its wings by pumping haemolymph into the wing veins. Although this sudden and rapid change from pupa to imago is often called metamorphosis, metamorphosis is really the whole series of changes that an insect undergoes from egg to adult.

If you do a google image search of eclosion (the noun form of the verb eclose), you get a bunch of pictures of butterflies coming out of cocoons, so I think this is as close as you're going to get.

https://www.google.com/search?q=eclosion&source=lnms&tbm=isch

Edit: Josh61 has downvoted me for not providing usages from academic contexts (I was unaware that was a requirement on this site, my bad), so here are a couple examples:

Myers, Edith M. "The circadian control of eclosion." Chronobiology international 20.5 (2003): 775-794.

Eclosion is the stage in development when the adult insect emerges from the shell of its old cuticle.

Allada, Ravi, et al. "Stopping time: the genetics of fly and mouse circadian clocks." Annual review of neuroscience 24.1 (2001): 1091-1119.

Fruit flies proceed through a series of characteristic developmental stages, beginning with the embryonic through a series of three larval stages to a pupal stage from which adults emerge or eclose.

You can do a search on Google Scholar if you really want more.

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Kevin Workman
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    Gah - beaten to it by an hour! As a professional entomologist I can confirm that this is the correct technical term. – arboviral Jun 21 '16 at 14:46
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    The question seems to be asking for a term other than "hatch" to describe the animal leaving the crysalis. This is the right answer IMHO – Mindwin Remember Monica Jun 21 '16 at 14:46
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    Yes, this seems to be a better answer, though the other one was convincing when it was the only answer available. It is strange to me as eclosion is the French term for Hatching. – asoundmove Jun 21 '16 at 15:11
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    @arboviral Every once in a while I daydream about what my life would be like if I had become an entomologist instead of a programmer. Sigh, the road untaken... – Kevin Workman Jun 21 '16 at 15:59
  • @KevinWorkman It is possible to do both (although not necessarily as much fun as it sounds!) - my job involves some insect population modelling and transmission modelling as well as Bayesian statistical inference. Just spotted the link in your profile - I may come and pick your brains about developing some resources... :) – arboviral Jun 21 '16 at 16:23
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    Academic context just gives a bit of weight, a "nice to have" from my point of view. It does turn it from a great response to a fantastic answer. Thank you. – asoundmove Jun 21 '16 at 18:26
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    @asoundmove Fair enough. I think the results from Google Scholar are pretty interesting. I would have provided them if the question included a request for scholarly examples! – Kevin Workman Jun 21 '16 at 18:37
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    @KevinWorkman I would never give up being a programmer to be an entomologist. I deal with enough bugs already, I don't want to deal with even more of them! – MKII Jun 22 '16 at 07:00
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    @MKII I wish I could offer a bounty on comments, because that gave me a good laugh. I am definitely stealing that joke from you. – Kevin Workman Jun 22 '16 at 12:52
  • i do apologize for the intrusion, but what would be the antonym then? the opposite of eclosging-hatching. what is the generic verb of butterfly going into pupa or putting stuff inside an egg? pupate is too specific – user151496 Jan 24 '17 at 18:58
  • @user151496 Sounds like a job for a new question. Let us know what you find in your research! – Kevin Workman Jan 25 '17 at 02:11
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I think that hatch can be used also for cocoons and chrysalises:

    1. (Zoology) to cause (the young of various animals, esp birds) to emerge from the egg or (of young birds, etc) to emerge from the egg
    1. (Zoology) to cause (eggs) to break and release the fully developed young or (of eggs) to break and release the young animal within

How to Hatch a Butterfly Cocoon :

  • Hatching and releasing a butterfly from its cocoon is a fun and educational process for kids (and adults) to observe.

  • Creating a safe environment for a cocoon to hatch into a butterfly is very easy. Simply tape a string across a jar full of grass or bucket and hang the cocoon to the string using a separate piece of tape via the string-like substance at the top of the cocoon.

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    While I appreciate that some people use hatch in this case, it feels wrong to me - and most of the instances I see describe it as "emerge" or "come out" from the crysalis or cocoon, not as hatch.

    All the definitions I saw of hatch mention eggs as the initial state and young as the after state. The coming out of a crysalis or cocoon creates an adult, not a young. Hence my question.

     – asoundmove Jun 21 '16 at 10:14
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    The link "how to hatch a butterfly cocoon" does not seem to me a very authoritative source. But I appreciate that the English language is defined by usage. – asoundmove Jun 21 '16 at 10:25
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    @asoundmove - it looks like it is quite common though, here it is used in a university context . http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/1999-11/942901976.Zo.r.html –  Jun 21 '16 at 10:27
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    See also here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12089477 –  Jun 21 '16 at 10:29