Butterfly Exhibit
April 8, 2008 by Doug
Filed under Miscellaneous
If you’re in the DC region, you might want to check out this exhibit. No, you *will* want to check out this exhibit.
Won’t you?
From the News Release
On February 15, 2008 the National Museum of Natural History opened its doors and invited visitors to feel the flutter™ in one of its most educational, entertaining and experiential exhibits to date. To help visitors get an up-close and unique look at how butterflies and plants have evolved and diversified together over millions of years, Butterflies features:
**A historical journey through the Exhibit Hall, taking visitors through the co-evolution of butterflies and plants. An array of colorful murals, timelines, videos and photographs support the exhibit’s underlying themes of survival and evolution.
** 1,200-square foot Live Butterfly Pavilion where visitors can walk among more than 300 tropical butterflies (new butterflies introduced on a weekly basis!) and watch firsthand how they interact with their plant partners.
** Butterflies is located on the second floor of the National Museum of Natural History, adjacent to the ever-popular Orkin Insect Zoo. For purchase and additional ticket details, please visit: http://www.butterflies.si.edu/tickets/
So look at this exhibit – you get to wander around with a bunch of buttering flutterbies and have a great time well before they’re appearing in your garden. Take your camera, get some good shots and take the kids. Particularly take the kids – they go nuts when they see these insects.
And do check out this article on my perennial website about encouraging butterflies in the garden butterfly attracting plants.
photo credit: MrClean1982


Did you ever ask yourself what happens to the butterflies they have fluttering around in those exhibits? The Desert Botanical Garden in PHX has such an exhibit and it was lovely to walk among the butterflies, but when I asked what happens to them… they don’t get released… they just die in there… how sad. And it’s difficult to think of anything sadder than butterflies of every imaginable shape and color pinned to a board… most of which are now extinct…
@Sharon -
Well, in the wild, they’d likely get eaten before they had a chance to breed and flit around. The lifespan of a butterfly in the wild can’t be better than in a massive butterfly-orium or whatever they call those things.