The Bayer Insectarium is an

insectarium An insectarium is a live insect zoo, or a museum or exhibit of live insects. Insectariums often display a variety of insects and similar arthropods, such as spiders, beetles, cockroaches, ants, bees, millipedes, centipedes, crickets, grasshopp ...

located within the

Saint Louis Zoo The Saint Louis Zoo, officially known as the Saint Louis Zoological Park, is a zoo in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri. It is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education. The zoo is accredited by th ...

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, United States. Having opened in 2000 and designed by David Mason & Associates with a cost of $4 million, this facility houses educational exhibits and an active breeding and research facility. It also includes a window to the exhibits area and two-way communications so visitors may watch

entomologist Entomology (from Ancient Greek ἔντομον (''éntomon''), meaning "insect", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study") is the branch of zoology that focuses on insects. Those who study entomology are known as entomologists. In ...

s work and ask them questions. The facility even includes a

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...

flight dome cage, which is home to numerous

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

flowers and

butterfly 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 ...

species. The Bayer Insectarium is open every day except Christmas and New Years days. Admission to the zoo and the insectarium is free.

Butterfly collection

The insectarium includes a tropical garden and pollinarium. The gallery (below) illustrates a few specimens from the pollinarium's collection. Image:Mexican_sister_underside.JPG, ''

Adelpha fessonia ''Adelpha fessonia'', the band-celled sister or Mexican sister, is a species of butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in Panama north through Central America to Mexico. It is a periodic resident in the lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas. ...

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Mexican sister, underside Image:Gulf Fritillary.JPG, '' Agraulis vanillae''
Gulf fritillary Image:Cydno Longwing underside.JPG, '' Heliconius cydno''
cydno longwing, underside Image:Red Postman.JPG, ''

Heliconius erato ''Heliconius erato'', or the red postman, is one of about 40 neotropical species of butterfly belonging to the genus ''Heliconius''. It is also commonly known as the small postman, the red passion flower butterfly, or the crimson-patched longwing ...

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red postman Image:Heliconius hecale.JPG, '' Heliconius hecale''
tiger longwing Image:Hypolimnas bolina.JPG, '' Hypolimnas bolina''
great egg fly, male Image:Idea leuconoe.JPG, ''

Idea leuconoe ''Idea leuconoe'', also known as the paper kite butterfly, rice paper butterfly, large tree nymph, is a butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly ...

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paper kite Image:Gray pansy.JPG, '' Junonia atlites''
gray pansy Image:Phoebis sennae.JPG, ''

Phoebis sennae ''Phoebis sennae'', the cloudless sulphur, is a mid-sized butterfly in the family Pieridae found in the Americas. There are several similar species such as the clouded sulphur (''Colias philodice''), the yellow angled-sulphur (''Anteos maerula'' ...

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cloudless sulphur File:Chocolate pansy 1.JPG, '' Precis iphita''
chocolate pansy Image:Great Mormon female.JPG, '' Princeps memnon''
great Mormon, female Image:Great Mormon male.JPG, '' Princeps memnon''
great Mormon, male Image:Malachite underside.JPG, ''

Siproeta stelenes ''Siproeta stelenes'' (malachite) is a Neotropical realm, Neotropical brush-footed butterfly (family Nymphalidae). The malachite has large wings that are black and brilliant green or yellow-green on the upperside and light brown and Chartreuse (c ...

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malachite, underside

Notes

External links

* * {{Zoos of Missouri Insectariums Saint Louis Zoo Buildings and structures in St. Louis Tourist attractions in St. Louis Butterfly houses Monsanto 2000 establishments in Missouri Zoos in Missouri