Minute Cryptic

Our definition here is 'Butterflies', and our answer will be another word for that.

This clue's indicators are 'beginning', 'to break free from', 'cocoons', and 'after metamorphosis'. One is an anagram indicator, suggesting that some neighbouring letters will undergo a transformation. Another is a containing indicator – some fodder needs to go inside other fodder. There's a selection indicator, naming the position of an important letter in neighbouring fodder, and a deletion indicator, telling us that certain fodder will escape.

This clue's fodder is 'many' and 'exit'. We'll use these letters (or some of them) to construct our answer, as guided by the clue's indicator(s).