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A long time ago (not later than the early Nineties) I read a novel or a short story that I'd wish to read again but haven't been able to find so far.
It's science fiction, probably written in the Sixties, and it featured peaceful aliens on their planet: human researchers on that planet were interacting with them and trying to understand their society.

Sadly I only remember one thing about the plot: the aliens had an insect-like life cycle and at one point they went into a metamorphosis, at whose end they were turned into a mindless, thoughtless butterfly or moth-like creature for a short while, just before dying.
And they spent their whole lives in expectation for this short moment of utter joy.

But the human protagonist unwillingly caused an incident where one of these aliens was crippled somehow: a consequence of the crippling was it prevented the alien from reaching the metamorphosis, hence it was robbed of the very goal of its existence.

Sadly I have no clue who the author was, when it was published or what else the plot was about.

Zab Zonk
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    Rings a faint bell. Tiptree? – Organic Marble May 23 '20 at 17:22
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    @OrganicMarble in Tiptree's story Help the Cygnians believe in a metamorphosis to a hypothetical winged form as part of their religion, but apart from this it doesn't match. – John Rennie May 23 '20 at 17:54
  • Thank you for suggesting Tiptree but I'm unsure she's the author, although theme and style might fit: I've read this story in Italian in my youth and I see only a handful of her stories have been translated. And "Help/Pupa Knows Best" (I've checked right now) isn't one of them. Any more suggestions maybe? – Zab Zonk May 23 '20 at 18:28
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    I vaguely remember this story. The humans were upset because the aliens' final stage was not sentient, but the aliens thought of the transformation as fulfillment rather than loss. – Invisible Trihedron May 23 '20 at 19:11
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    The description somewhat fits the lifecycle of the Ly-Cylph, but that's a very minor part of the much larger Reality Dysfunction by Peter F. Hamilton. – LSerni May 23 '20 at 20:57
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    Invisible Trihedron: now that you say it, yes, that's correct! Humans could not come to terms with the aliens' last stage being not sentient and probably this was what caused the incident. LSerni: thanks but it can't be Hamilton, I haven't read anything by him. – Zab Zonk May 23 '20 at 21:15
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    There are aliens in Roger MacBride Allen's 'Rogue Powers' which have a similar life cycle, though the transformation into a brainless butterfly wasn't exactly anticipated with joy as far as I remember. – Martin Goldsack May 23 '20 at 22:54
  • Although you don't know exactly when it was published, I bet you could narrow dowxn the search space by putting an upper bound on it. So. does "a long time ago" mean "no later than a950" or "no later than 2010" or what? You see, Long time ago" means different things to different people. – user14111 May 23 '20 at 23:15
  • Almost sounds like a mix of 2-3 different Sector General stories - "Out-Patient" with the "Ians" that change from a 10-legged DBLF type into a butterfly-like but still sapient GKNM form (read the books for what the classifications mean) and "Recovery" / "Star Healer" where the "Protectors of the Unborn" change from a sapient, telepathic unborn baby into a violent non-sapient when they are born. – KerrAvon2055 May 24 '20 at 05:21

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The Voices of Heaven, by Frederic Pohl. It's one of my favorite scifi books. The main character is named Barry Di Hoa, though the aliens, called Leps, say it as all one word. The planet's name is Pava. Barry was accidentally sent there, and is less than keen on the suicide-cult that makes up the majority of the population. The woman who the Leps think injured one of their own is named Theophan Sperlie.

Organic Marble
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Rowan
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  • This might well be the one I was looking for! I like Pohl, I own this book and I read it almost as soon as it was published: and after a cursory glance, I also stumbled into a few scenes that were buried in my memories. The aliens life cycle fits my description, so I'm pretty sure this is the book I was looking for. Thank you for helping, I was losing hope to find it! – Zab Zonk Nov 09 '21 at 21:59
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I'm posting an answer that doesn't quite match the details in the question, and I'm going from memory because it's at least 45 years since I read it so please bear with.

I think you're looking for 'Memoirs of a Spacewoman' by Naomi Mitchison. In one of the chapters the lady protagonist is on a world full of intelligent caterpillar things, due to a bit of meddling (either by her or by her team) something spoils the metamorphosis.

However the adult butterflies are actually reclusive and immortal beings, they can live forever but they die if they lay eggs.

The pregnancy is caused by being sexually active in the caterpillar stage and the adults are thus very very rare that didn't indulge and so live forever, it's much more common for one to get it's wings and then die because the egg laying rips it apart.

Occasionally an adult will fly over groups of caterpillars having an orgy, the butterfly telepathically lashes down waves of shame and then flies back to the deep forests.

This is to try and stop sexual behaviour and so increase the chance of at least one caterpillar remaining a virgin and joining the immortals.

I think that was how the spacewoman interfered, not only did she encourage the 'free love' but she might have joined in. (IIRC she was James Kirk-ing it across the galaxy by having sex with various non humans)

Danny Mc G
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In Larry Niven's Draco Tavern stories, there's one ("Chrysalis") about a species who resemble caterpillars and eventually metamorphose into butterfly-like creatures. They're only sapient in the caterpillar phase, so they've figured out medical ways to delay the transformation.

Karst
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  • Thank you for your help but, despite a few similarities, sadly this isn't the story I'm looking for: there's no tavern in that story nor spacefaring aliens. – Zab Zonk Jan 18 '21 at 08:29