American Museum of Natural History

The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter

October 10, 2009 - May 31, 2010

Kayla Serrano, age 3, gets a close look at an Owl butterfly (Caligo memnon) in The Butterfly Conservatory, October 2008.
Denis Finnin/AMNH

The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter, visited by millions of children and adults since the exhibition first opened in 1998, has returned to the American Museum of Natural History. Celebrating its twelfth year at the Museum, this highly popular winter attraction transforms the iciest day into a magical summer escape, inviting visitors to mingle with up to 500 fluttering, iridescent butterflies among blooming tropical flowers and lush green vegetation in 80-degree temperatures. The Butterfly Conservatory is on view through May 31, 2010.

The Butterfly Conservatory is a joyful, enchanting, and educational exhibition for both children and adults, and truly transports visitors out of their everyday lives into a magical setting teeming with color and flourishing life,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museumof Natural History. “That’s why it’s one of our most popular exhibitions. We are proud to bring to the public for the twelfth year this magical and beautiful exhibition that offers an instructive interactive experience and a unique opportunity to observe the diversity of nature in a re-created tropical forest environment filled with butterflies.”

The Butterfly Conservatory
Visitors interact with butterflies inside a 1,200-square-foot vivarium, a freestanding structure aflutter with activity. Museum-goers stroll along a winding pathway surrounded by the varied leaves of tropical plants and trees and a riot of vibrant blossoms, including Pentas and Ixora. Powerful halide lamps shine down from the ceiling, simulating the sunlight that streams through a rain forest. In the background, recorded sounds of howler monkeys, parakeets, quetzals, and other tropical animals bring the setting to life. Visitors outside the vivarium can watch through translucent walls as monarchs, zebra longwings, paper kites, and other butterfly species flutter among people and plants.

The Conservatory’s butterflies come from farms in Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, andAustralia. Among the included species are iridescent blue morpho butterflies, striking scarlet swallowtails, large owl butterflies, and beautiful green birdwings. Because the average life span of a butterfly is only two to three weeks, roughly 500 butterfly pupae will be shipped to the Museum weekly for the duration of the exhibit, and the butterflies will be released into the vivarium after emerging. Other pupae hang in a case in the vivarium, giving visitors a firsthand look as adult butterflies transform from the chrysalis and fly away only hours after adjusting to their new surroundings. Video screens outside the vivarium will also display a short video of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

Also outside the vivarium, colorful educational displays explain the life cycle of butterflies, the worldwide efforts to protect their diverse habitats, and the variety of butterfly species in New York State. Visitors learn about interesting adaptations, from the colored scales that form butterfly wings’ intricate designs to the intriguing relationships between butterflies and other animal species (monarchs, for instance, are toxic to birds). Other panels explain how scientists rely on wild butterflies to gauge the health of an ecosystem and how the Museum’s butterfly specimens offer a wealth of information to butterfly and moth researchers around the world.

Please visit AMNH Web site for details.