EXHIBITION OF LIVE BUTTERFLIES AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Saturday, 23 September 2006 12:27

New York City - The Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter, visited by millions of children and adults, returns to the American Museum of Natural History on October 7, 2006.  Now in its ninth year, this highly popular wintertime destination flourishes in 80° temperatures and features up to 500 hovering iridescent butterflies, blooming tropical flowers, and lush green vegetation.  The Butterfly Conservatory transforms the iciest winter day into a magical escape into summer.  Shimmering, multicolored butterflies gently flutter by visitors’ upturned faces, land atop their heads, or perch upon their shoulders.  The Butterfly Conservatory is on view through May 28, 2007.

“The Butterfly Conservatory is a joyful, enchanting, and educational exhibition for both children and adults, and truly transports visitors out of their everyday lives into a magical setting teeming with color and flourishing life,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History.  “That’s why it’s one of our most popular exhibitions.  We are proud to bring to the public for the ninth year this magical and beautiful exhibition that offers an instructive interactive experience and a unique opportunity to observe the diversity of nature in a re-created forest environment filled with butterflies.”

The Butterfly Conservatory
Visitors mingle with butterflies inside a 1,200-square-foot vivarium, a freestanding structure that bustles with activity. Museum-goers stroll along a pathway that winds through the habitat, surrounded by the variegated leaves of tropical plants and trees and a riot of vibrant blossoms, including Dendrobium and Phalaenopsis orchids.  Powerful halide lamps shine down from the ceiling, simulating the sunlight that streams through an actual rain forest.  In the background, the recorded sounds of howler monkeys, parakeets, quetzals, and other tropical animals help bring the “rain forest” to life.  Outside the vivarium, visitors can peer through translucent walls to watch monarch, zebra longwings, orange-barred sulphurs, and other butterfly species flutter among people and plants.

The Conservatory’s butterflies come from farms in Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, and Malaysia.  New to the exhibition are also species from Australia and Ecuador.  Among the species included in the vivarium are iridescent blue morpho butterflies, striking scarlet swallowtails, and large owl butterflies.  Since the average life span of a butterfly is two to three weeks, roughly 500 butterfly pupae will be shipped to the Museum weekly for the duration of the exhibit.  They are released in the vivarium after emerging.  Others hang in a case in the vivarium, so visitors can witness adult butterflies emerging from the chrysalis stage and flying away only hours after adjusting to their new surroundings.

Outside the vivarium, colorful educational displays explain the life cycle of butterflies, the worldwide efforts to protect their diverse habitats, and the variety of butterfly species in New York State.  Visitors learn that intricate designs on wings are formed by colored scales, and that some butterflies, such as monarchs, are toxic to birds.  Other panels explain how scientists rely on wild butterflies to gauge the health of an ecosystem, and how the Museum’s butterfly specimens offer a wealth of information to butterfly and moth researchers around the world.  Video screens outside the vivarium display a short video of a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis.

Butterflies Online

Butterfly enthusiasts can visit the exhibition online at www.amnh.org by clicking on The Butterfly Conservatory link.  There they can watch longwings, swallowtails, and other species flicker by via a digital camera mounted in the vivarium.  They can also find helpful tips on how to attract these magical creatures to their own backyards by creating a butterfly garden.

The Butterfly Conservatory is curated by Randall T. Schuh, Curator and Chair of the Museum’s Division of Invertebrate Zoology.  The design director is David Harvey, Vice President for Exhibition.

American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History is one of the world’s preeminent scientific, educational, and cultural institutions.  Since its founding in 1869, the Museum has advanced its global mission to explore and interpret human cultures and the natural world through a wide-reaching program of scientific research, education, and exhibitions.  The Museum accomplishes this ambitious goal through its extensive facilities and resources.  The institution houses 45 permanent exhibition halls, state-of-the-art research laboratories, one of the largest natural history libraries in the Western Hemisphere, and a permanent collection of more than 30 million specimens and cultural artifacts.  With a scientific staff of more than 200, the Museum supports research divisions in Anthropology, Paleontology, Invertebrate and Vertebrate Zoology, and the Physical Sciences.