Butterflies Return To Natural History Museum In October

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Live butterflies will return to the American Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Conservatory on Oct. 6 to kick off one of the Upper West Side institution's most popular seasonal exhibits, museum officials announced this week.

From October to May, 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, the museum's president, said in a statement.

"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."

The live butterflies will remain at the museum from Oct. 6 through May 27, museum officials said. The conservatory's hours mirror those of the museum, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. The conservatory is curated by David Grimaldi, of the museum's Division of Invertebrate Zoology, and is managed by the Exhibition Department's Hazel Davies.

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.

Photo courtesy American Museum of Natural History/M. Shanley.