A butterfly house, conservatory, or lepidopterarium is a facility which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

with an emphasis on education. They may also be used to support local populations through butterfly release. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects and

arthropod Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

s. Butterfly houses are owned and operated by zoos, museums, universities, non-profit corporations, and private individuals as part of their residence; as well as small businesses that are owner operated.

History

Live butterfly exhibits became popular in England in the end of the 1970s, appealing to the British love of

greenhouse A greenhouse is a structure that is designed to regulate the temperature and humidity of the environment inside. There are different types of greenhouses, but they all have large areas covered with transparent materials that let sunlight pass an ...

s and natural settings. The tropical world's first live butterfly and insect sanctuary is Penang Butterfly Farm in Penang, Malaysia, established on March 29, 1986. The first butterfly house in the United States, Butterfly World, opened in Coconut Creek, Florida, in 1988.

Activities

Butterfly houses are typically open to the public. Exploration of such facilities may be with a guide or self-paced. Guided tours may last about fifteen minutes, as the guide points out all the species of butterflies that are in the greenhouse that day. Stocks vary, as new shipments usually arrive weekly. Guides may also show butterfly

eggs An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo begins to develop. Egg, EGG or eggs may also refer to: Biology * Egg cell, the female reproductive cell (gamete) in oogamous organisms Food * Eggs as food Places * Egg, Austria * Egg, Switzerland ...

caterpillars Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

, and chrysalids and identify specific plants that are favored by each species. Usually, the best time to see butterflies emerging from their

pupae A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages th ...

is between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Butterflies are most active on warm and sunny days with little

wind Wind is the natural movement of atmosphere of Earth, air or other gases relative to a planetary surface, planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heatin ...

, because they require the heat of the

sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

to aid in their digestion. On rainy days, they usually hide in the flowers and leaves. There are often many different species in such butterfly houses, with stock including butterflies from Africa,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

, South America,

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, and other places. The vibrant colors and patterns on the wings of the insects have earned them the fanciful nickname "flying flowers". Monarca Butterflies in a Paladarium

Many species of adult butterflies live only one to two weeks, during which time they must produce a new generation. Some species, such as the familiar monarch butterfly, however, can live as long as six months or even longer in the wild. Schools have butterfly houses for educational purposes. In Puerto Rico, a group of students from the Clara Maldonado de Aramburu School in Juncos, celebrated the relaunching of its butterfly house which had been destroyed by

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

on September 19, 2017. With help from community members, the butterfly houses and ecosystem was fixed, and their monarch butterflies took flight in March 2019.

References

External links

* {{Zoos Butterflies Insectariums

History

Activities

See also

References

External links