Butterfly Lab

Praying mantis metal sculpture in the entrance foyer of the museum

Chrysalides pinned to hang in the display case. (when emerged, butterflies need to hang to allow gravity to fully extend their wings and to dry) The stains are from the liquid the butterfly releases on emergence. They are quite messy!

The waterfall in the butterfly haven

When the display cases are opened, there is always a butterfly that quickly slips out to flutter around in the lab. (I'm getting better at this!) Hmm, it brings to mind a hilarious image of my activities in retirement.

I've retrieved the empty chrysalides. The straight pins will be removed and soaked in a solution for 24 hours to kill off the pesky foreign invaders and the empty cases will be autoclaved and disposed of.

There are hundreds of species of butterflies that come to the lab and sorry, I have yet to learn the names to identify all of them and then remember the names!

I know this one - I just cannot remember the name at the moment! arg

Inside the lab, looking out thru the glass display cases to where the public can view the pupa and watch the butterflies emerge. This is the box that fully emerged butterflies are placed into to wait for the daily release.

Click to enlarge this photo and check out their eyes! (I mean the ones in their head not wings, :)well, check out those as well)
2 "owls " feeding on overripe mango, banana, and oranges

View of the butterfly haven

Non domestic monarch butterfly chrysalides. I wish I had a better camera. The colors just do not show well and I have not mastered the art of making the details clearer. The green is a beautiful opalescent jade green.

Looking at the display case from the public area into the butterfly lab.

When I retired I decided one of the ways I wanted to spend time was to allot time to volunteering - doing something completely different from my career as an RN - One of the volunteer organizations I now work for is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. When I was little, I wanted to be a naturalist. I was fascinated with the meadows that surrounded my house and the teeming natural life associated with that wonderful sun-filled busy place. Insects, butterflies, birds and pollywogs in the small pond that were scooped up and brought home to observe the amazing transformation to frogs. So I chose the Nature Museum! Of course! There was a waiting list for the butterfly lab but 2 months ago I was trained to do the work - I volunteer for 4 hours every other Sunday and part of my responsibilities include unpacking express packages, (if left from Saturday), from different countries that contain the pupa of an enormous array of exquisite butterflies. The haven has only nondomestic butterflies because they have a multitude of colors, shapes and sizes that aren't found in the US. Also, because domestic cannot mix with non, another reason the haven only has non. After they are unpacked, they are hung in the display window. And by federal law the haven cannot mix domestic vs non, because of the risk of cross infection. The pupa are labeled and the shipment details are entered into the computer. The butterflies that have fully emerged, are dry and able to fly are placed into a large glass box to wait for the daily butterfly release- which is a wonderful event for the kids as well as the adults to witness. The butterflies are brought into the haven and a brief kid friendly information session is imparted and then they are released. It's quite a lovely thing to see the kids faces. Many of these children are city kids who have had little or no contact with the natural world or have a concept of creatures as being something to study and appreciate rather than as pests and something to kill.

The display cases are cleaned with a mix of water and bleach (butterflies stink!!!) and and the empty chrysalides are readied to place in the autoclave. The food prepared for the butterflies - plates of overripe black bananas, mango cubes and oranges. (The lab uses a such cool mango slicer that I decided to buy one) We keep track of any non emerged, partially emerged, diseased and failure to fly butterflies and that data is entered as well. Any dead butterflies, chrysalides, insects found in the display window and the old food are autoclaved and then disposed of. Per federal law the butterfly lab itself is pressurized with reverse airflow to ensure that no foreign insect, pest, disease escapes, hence the autoclaving and air filtration.

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