A few butterflies and many moth species spin a silk case or cocoon prior to pupating, while others do not, instead going underground. A butterfly pupa, called a chrysalis, has a hard skin, usually with no cocoon.
4. tension - (physics) a stress that produces an elongation of an elastic physical body; the direction of maximum tension moves asymptotically toward the direction of the shear. natural philosophy, physics-the science of matter and energy and their interactions; his favorite subject was physics.
Etymology: Pierre S. de Laplace, French physicist, 1749-1827. a principle of physics that the tension on the wall of a sphere is the product of the pressure times the radius of the chamber and the tension is inversely related to the thickness of the wall.