Live Butterflies Return To Museum Of Natural History

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A favorite exhibit among visitors of the American Museum of Natural History is set to kick off its 20th season at the museum this week. Live butterflies will return to the museum's Butterfly Conservatory Wednesday for the "Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter," according to a press release.

For more than eight months, the 1,200-square-foot Butterly Conservatory will house up 500 butterflies for the exhibit, museum officials said. Visitors will be able to walk among the butterflies in the vivarium, according to a press release. The Butterfly Conservatory will be set to a temperature of 80 degrees and filled with lush foliage and blooming tropical flowers, museum officials said.

"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," Ellen V. Futter, president of the American Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.

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The museums' butterflies are imported from Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador and Australia, museum officials said. Butterfly pupae will also be shipped to the museum, and the butterflies that emerge will be released into the conservatory.

Visitors of the conservatory will be able to learn about the butterfly's life cycle, worldwide efforts to preserve butterfly habitats and New York State's butterfly species.

"Butterflies are also important harbingers of environmental change, and so this exhibition offers not just a unique and fascinating experience, but also an opportunity to learn about the roles butterflies play in ecosystems and why it is so critical that we protect them," Futter said in a statement.

Photo courtesy American Museum of Natural History