Caterpillar or Butterfly?

One of my favourite insects is the butterfly.  I think there is nothing nicer on a sunny day than to see the butterflies flitting from one flower to another, seeking out the nectar and pollinating at the same time. Having lived in hotter climes, I have had the privilege of seeing some beautifully coloured and very large butterflies.  It is amazing to see a whole crowd of them resting and drinking beside a waterfall.  Absolutely stunning.

A group of swallowtails drinking in a pool next to Iguazu waterfalls

On the other hand I really dislike caterpillars and most gardeners try to eliminate them from the plants as they seem to devour just about every green leaf in sight.  Although they can also be of varying colours, some quite stunning to look at, the colours don't seem to attract us in the same way as the butterflies do.  Somehow that wriggly worm-like creature doesn't have the same appeal as the butterfly.

Maybe we see the apparent freedom of the butterfly displaying its beauty and being useful to us as pollinators while the caterpillars just seem to eat everything that we want to grow for our own use and pleasure.  The thing is that you can't have the butterfly without first having the caterpillar and it seems to me that for every caterpillar that we get rid of, that's one less butterfly to enjoy.  Hmm!!  Quite a dilemma!  Is that another of nature's lessons?  Someone once said, 'There's nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly.'