chrysalis

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A pupa, especially of a moth or butterfly, enclosed in a firm case or cocoon.
2. n. A protected stage of development.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A form which butterflies, moths, and most other insects assume when they abandon the larval or caterpillar state and before they arrive at their winged or perfect state; specifically, the pupa of a butterfly. In the chrysalis form the animal is in a state of rest or insensibility, and exists without nutriment for a length of time varying with the species and season. During this period an elaboration is going on in the interior of the chrysalis, giving to the organs of the future animal their proper development before it breaks its envelop. The form of the case of the chrysalis varies with different families and orders. Those of most lepidopterous insects are inclosed in a somewhat horny membranous case, and generally of a more or less angular form, pointed at the abdominal end and sometimes at both ends. Before the caterpillar undergoes its transformation into this state it often spins for itself a silken cocoon, within which the chrysalis is concealed. In most of the Coleoptera the legs of the chrysalis are in distinct sheaths; in the Lepidoptera they are not distinct; in the locust tribe, and many other insects, the chrysalis resembles the perfect insect, and differs from the latter principally in not having the wings complete. Also called chrysalid, chrysalidan, nymph, pupa, and formerly aurelia.

Wiktionary

1. n. the pupa of a butterfly or moth, enclosed inside a cocoon, in which metamorphosis takes place

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The pupa state of certain insects, esp. of butterflies, from which the perfect insect emerges. See pupa, and aurelia (a).

WordNet 3.0

1. n. pupa of a moth or butterfly enclosed in a cocoon