Found in the polytunnel today

The chrysalis was found ensconced on the kale leaf a week or so ago although it is now outside, leaf as well. Also a small ridged cucumber nearly ready to cut off, a first for possibly 25 years, a few bottles of nettle fertiliser John bottled up yesterday and a tiny chillie is forming, the plants have taken forever to reach this stage, I’m not expecting too much. And a plant John is growing called sea foam, this will eventually dry out and become ‘trees’ in the slot car scenery.

From the Internet:
Both moth and butterfly larvae are commonly called caterpillars. They grow by shedding their skin. When a caterpillar is done growing, it begins its change into an adult butterfly or moth.The caterpillar finds a safe place and attaches itself using a silky thread it spins. It sheds its skin one last time and its new smooth outer skin hardens to form the pupa. Another name for the pupa is the chrysalis.

Both moths and butterflies form chrysalides. However, only a moth caterpillar (and, to be completely accurate, not even all of them) spins itself a silky, but tough outer casing before it sheds its skin that final time. It is that outer casing that is called a cocoon. (Incidentally, silk thread comes from silk cocoons.) If you were able to see inside the cocoon, the moth caterpillar would be undergoing the same transformation into a chrysalis as the butterfly caterpillar does out in the open