Of course. But, you didn't answer my question.
If butterflies didn't exist today, or hadn't existed for billions of years, and all we had was fossil records of butterflies and caterpillars, would scientists have concluded they were the same species ?
Unless they lied it would be the same species. Would they conclude an egg was a different species than a chicken?
There are no examples of transitionary fossils even though they have been looking for 150 years when there should be millions of examples over billions and billions of years.