Butterfly World is located in Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States. It opened in 1988, and is the largest

butterfly park Butterfly Park is a city park of about in Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Located at 7720 South Macadam Avenue, the park includes a natural area and walking paths near the Willamette River. The natural area provides important habitat for ...

in the world, and the first park of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. The facility houses around 20,000 live butterflies.

History

After retiring from a career as electrical engineer, Ronald Boender started raising butterflies and their food plants in his home in Florida. In 1984 he established MetaScience to help supply farmed butterflies to zoos and universities. After having visited England in 1985, where he met Clive Farrell (founder and owner of the

London Butterfly House The London Butterfly House was a visitor attraction in Brentford, Middlesex, England where the public could view butterfly, butterflies, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and arachnids. Set in Syon Park, the grounds of Syon House, the facili ...

), he decided to create his own facility in Florida. Boender and Ferrell entered into partnership and started planning the facility, which was to be a public attraction, but also a research facility and a

butterfly farm Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprise ...

. Butterfly World opened on March 28, 1988. Since then it has expanded to include the largest free flight hummingbird aviary in the United States, a Lorikeet Encounter, and an

aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Types There are various reasons that people get involved in aviculture. Some people breed birds to preserve a species. Some people breed parrots a ...

research center.

Exhibits

The Paradise Adventure Aviary includes fountains with ponds, and butterflies. The Hanging Garden & Butterfly Emerging Area has display cases with hanging pupa and emerging butterflies. The Tropical Rain Forest Aviary includes a waterfall, tropical plants, free flying birds, and butterflies. Grace Gardens is an outdoor botanical garden with flowering tropical plants. The Wings of the World Secret Garden has one of the largest collections of flowering

Passion Flower ''Passiflora'', known also as the passion flowers or passion vines, is a genus of about 550 species of flowering plants, the type genus of the family Passifloraceae. They are mostly tendril-bearing vines, with some being shrubs or trees. They ...

vines in the world. The Jewels of the Sky Aviary is where exotic birds can be seen. The Museum/Insectarium features exhibits of mounted specimens of

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

moths Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

, and other insects. The Bug Zoo displays live insects including

water bug Waterbug or water bug can refer to any of several things: True bugs * The true water bugs (Nepomorpha), including such insects as giant water bugs, creeping water bugs and backswimmers * Various other aquatic true bugs, known collectively as wate ...

spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

wasps A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. T ...

walking stick A walking stick or walking cane is a device used primarily to aid walking, provide postural stability or support, or assist in maintaining a good posture. Some designs also serve as a fashion accessory, or are used for self-defense. Walking sti ...

s, and

mantises Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...

. Visitors can view the laboratory where the butterflies are raised and can see the different stages including eggs,

caterpillar 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 ...

s, and

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''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 ...

Conservation

Passiflora Society International was established at Butterfly World to encourage research on and help share information about passion flowers, which are the source of food for many butterflies. Butterfly World has also helped establish the Boender Endangered Species Laboratory at the University of Florida, which is helping reintroduce the Schaus swallowtail to Southern Florida.

Gallery

File:Archaeoprepona Demophon 027.jpg, ''

Archaeoprepona demophon ''Archaeoprepona demophon'', the one-spotted prepona, banded king shoemaker, or demophon shoemaker
Bu ...

'' File:Aristolochia gibertii 2.jpg, ''

Aristolochia gibertii ''Aristolochia gibertii'' is a species of perennial plant in the family Aristolochiaceae The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of flowering plants with seven genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Pip ...

'' File:Cethosia Hypsea mating.jpg, ''

Cethosia hypsea ''Cethosia hypsea'', the Malay lacewing, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in from Burma to Indonesia and the Philippines. The wingspan is about 80 mm. Adults are bright orange red above with broad black borders, warnin ...

'' File:Aristolochia grandiflora 1.jpg, ''

Aristolochia grandiflora ''Aristolochia grandiflora'', the pelican flower, is a deciduous vine with one of the world's largest flowers that emits an odor that smells like rotting feet, attracting flies. Description ''Aristolochia grandiflora'' produces large solitary f ...

'' File:Butterfly World, Florida.jpg, ''Family: ITHOMIDAE The Glasswings'' File:The Matlachite Butterfly World.jpg, Malachite Butterfly

References

External links

* {{authority control Zoos in Florida Museums in Broward County, Florida Buildings and structures in Broward County, Florida Butterfly houses Insectariums Botanical gardens in Florida Natural history museums in Florida Aviaries in the United States Coconut Creek, Florida