Butterfly collection questions?

AdrianW1963

AdrianW1963

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I have been going back through old photograph collections all the way to 2011.
I found I have many Butterfly species unnamed and was wondering if there are many Butterfly exhibits in collections.
The ones I have so far are Butterfly Farm, Twycross Zoo & London Zoo.
I would like to know also if there are web sites that are good for Butterfly Identification for species from around the world?
 
AdrianW1963 said:
I have been going back through old photograph collections all the way to 2011.
I found I have many Butterfly species unnamed and was wondering if there are many Butterfly exhibits in collections.
The ones I have so far are Butterfly Farm, Twycross Zoo & London Zoo.
I would like to know also if there are web sites that are good for Butterfly Identification for species from around the world?
Click to expand...

There is a butterfly house at Melbourne Zoo here in Australia.
 
Just gone through the UK gallery and noticed hardly any images of Butterflies even from collections that say Butterflies & so on.
Is this because people on here are not in to Butterflies or do people on here just avoid the exhibits.
 
Chester Zoo had a Butterfly House when I visited in 2010 which was still there in 2013. There was a Butterfly World on the Isle of Wight in 1985 and a Butterfly World on Anglesey in 1986. I have a vague recollection that Butterfly attractions were very popular in the 1980s and often included other invertebrate species. They seem to have gone out of fashion in recent years.
 
Jimmy’s farm have a lovely butterfly house, and at pili Palas in Anglesey they sell large butterfly identification guides that are very nice :)
 
Bristol Zoo still have Butterfly Forest.

I would imagine most of the species across these UK zoos all come from the same handful of suppliers so the species-pool might not be as crazy as it first seems.
 
Still looking for identification of some species in the gallery for identifications if anyone can help I would be very grateful
 
There is a butterfly house with Monarchs and other species I don't remember at the Minnesota Zoo. At the Honolulu Zoo, there's also an exhibit for the Kamehameha Butterfly, which is endemic to Hawaii.
 
Colchester had a little butterfly walk-through as of 2 years ago..Am i assuming its stille there. I've heard the New Forest Wildlife Park had a seasonal one. The Horniman Museum had one last year. London Zoo ZSL had one.

Hanwell Zoo has a dreary little shed for a butterfly house,one that so infuriated me when visitors constantly left the door open with the flimsy plastic strips. Two Blue Morpho's fluttered out. I saved one but the other flew away to certain doom.

Are most butterfly exhibits seasonal opening?
 
The Colchester Zoo butterfly display has now been closed and renovated to become an aviary for Victoria crowned pigeons. Probably for the best, as it never really worked as a butterfly walkthrough (the only natural light was from two side windows, so the butterflies would simply line up on the windowsills rather than use the space; there were also only three species, two of which were owl butterflies with only subtle differences).

The butterfly walkthrough at Jimmy's Farm was one I liked when I saw it recently. For a small cost you could also buy a brochure at the entrance to the park with an identification key for tropical butterflies - I think it may have been a generalised 'butterfly house' brochure rather than one specifically for Jimmy's Farm.
 
The ones I have been to:

Antwerpen Zoo (Belgium) have a tall building with much grown vegetation inside and a very high transparent roof. They have typical asian and american species, but I saw my first Grecian Shoemaker here.

Artis Royal Zoo (Netherlands) have an excellent butterfly house with looks like a big garden, clean and neat, without letting the plants overgrown. All species here are from tropical America. Is a really very good exhibit, with also great botanical interest due to rare species of tropical trees used. Check the calabash tree trunks, they're favourite resting spots for butterflies.

Burgers Zoo (Netherlands) have the Mangrove with free-flying butterflies mixed with birds, manatees, fiddler crabs, etc. All butterflies here are Caribbean as the rest of animals in the exhibit. Most are longwings, but also morphos, cattlehearts, etc. The most interesting is to be able to see interaction between butterflies and bigger animals such as ducks or doves.

Faunia (Madrid, Spain) have the worst butterfly house I've been into. Called "the Eden garden", it only holded longwings and one Malachite during my visit. Vegetation is too dense and butterfly feeders are unaesthetic flower-shaped small red sponges attached to branches. Is always full of people and the pathway is too closed for a relaxing walk.

Franklin Park Zoo (Boston, USA) have a very good one with interesting native species mixed with some common tropical ones. In my opinion, is the best one I've been, because the native species they use are very unusual in Europe and many was new for me. In the exit they have a big Clethra bush whose flowers are always full of butterflies.

London Butterfly House (Syon Park, London, UK), I went in late 2006, and they closed forever the same year, sadly. I went here by some unusual passerines that they also kept, such as Japanese waxwing or Emerald starling.

Mariposario del Drago (Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain) also closed forever since long years ago.

The conclusion is that butterfly houses alone struggle for survive, while butterfly houses that are part of a bigger zoo, can remain with no problem.
 
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