Butterfly World is located in Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, Florida. It opened in 1988, and it is the largest butterfly park 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 Farrell entered into partnership and started planning the facility, which was to be a public attraction, but also a research facility and a butterfly farm. 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. Aviculture Aviculture is the practice of keeping birds (class '' Aves'') in captivity in controlled conditions, normally within the confines of 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. ''Passiflora'' species are widely cultivated for their striking flowers, fla ...

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 Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the Order (biology), order Scorpiones. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by a pair of Chela (organ), grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward cur ...

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 ...

moths Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (suborder Rhopalocera) a ...

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

spiders Spiders (order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, 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 di ...

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. Th ...

walking stick A walking stick (also known as a walking cane, cane, walking staff, or staff) 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 acces ...

s, and mantises. 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 ...

s, and

pupa 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 ...

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, Butterflies of the Amazon and the Andes is a butterfly belonging to the family Nymphalidae. Description The wingspan reaches about . The uppersid ...

'' File:Aristolochia gibertii 2.jpg, '' Aristolochia gibertii'' File:Cethosia Hypsea mating.jpg, '' Cethosia hypsea'' File:Aristolochia grandiflora 1.jpg, '' Aristolochia grandiflora'' 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