This is an attempt to list every species on exhibit at Butterfly Wonderland in Scottsdale, Arizona during my visit on 12-5-16. I am arranging the list by the current visitor map by the named zones as they are encountered along its one-way route. I am including species for which there is a sign on each exhibit. This is not intended to be a full account of the collection. Also, species on exhibit are sometimes moved, so some that were there one day may have disappeared from public view the next. All exhibits are indoors.
ENTRY/EXIT ROOMS: (0 Exhibits)
Guest Services is the first and last room that visitors encounter, with a small ticketing/reception desk and a photo greenscreen backdrop for purchasing pictures. The room has a large forest mural on one side, abstract butterfly decorations hanging from the dark ceiling, and the entrance/exit of the Butterfly Treasures gift shop. A small birthday party room is located to one side but its door was closed. A long narrow hallway labeled as the 'Queing Area' on the map leads into the attraction, past the restrooms and past the 3D Theater into the Butterfly Emergence Gallery described below. This hallway does have at least 4 brightly-lit wall exhibits of pinned preserved butterflies but no live exhibits.
3D THEATER: (0 Exhibits)
I did not go into the theater to watch the film that is included with admission so am only assuming there were no live exhibits inside.
BUTTERFLY EMERGENCE GALLERY: (3 Exhibits)
This darkened room is the foyer to the Conservatory that is the main attraction, and it has 3 adjacent wall exhibits behind glass that are brightly lit. Inside each are hanging shelves for attaching the chrysalides of all the species currently emerging to be transferred into the Conservatory, with small signs identifying each row of different species. For the species list, see the list of butterfly species in the Conservatory description below.
CONSERVATORY: (3 Exhibits)
The main attraction is this large rectangular room with concrete masonry walls painted green, a standard gabled steel-and-glass roof, and multiple concrete visitor paths surrounded by a wide variety of tropical and sub-tropical shrubs and small trees. This is the habitat for multiple species of free-flying butterflies as well as birds; while the birds are identified with signs, the butterflies are not due to the constant change of species so my list is compiled from 2 sources: the species listed in the visitor map brochure, and species signed in the Butterfly Emergence Gallery. It should be noted that not all of these species were necessarily on view that day, and that other species are very likely to be exhibited in the future depending on the latest shipment. The species are:
Free-flying Butterflies:
African Moon Moth
Arch-winged Cattleheart
Atlas Moth
Banded Peacock
Black and Tan Page
Black and White Helen
Blue Clipper
Blue King Shoemaker
Blue Morpho
Clipper
Common Lacewing
Costa Rica Clearwing
Doris Longwing
Great Eggfly
Great Mormon
Great Yellow Mormon
Grecian Shoemaker
Grey Cracker
Magnificent Owl
Malay Lacewing
Mexican Bluewing
Monarch
Paper Kite
Pearl Charaxes
Pink Cattleheart
Postman
Ruby Spotted Swallowtail
Sapho Longwing
Scarlet Mormon
Silver-studded Leafwing
Small Blue Grecian
Spotted Tiger Glassywing
Starry Cracker
Tailed Jay
Thoas Swallowtail
Three Tailed Swallowtail
Tiger Longwing
Tiger-striped Leafwing
Variable Cattleheart
White Morpho
Whitend Bluewing
Zebra Mosaic
Free-flying Birds:
Black-crowned Waxbill
Chinese Button Quail
Cordon-bleu (unsigned unidentified species, keeper said they were new)
Domestic Canary
Gouldian Finch
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Honeybee Extravaganza:
This small exhibit and interpretive area on one side of the Conservatory has a contained apiary with glass sides for viewing a colony. It is connected to the outside world via a short tube to a walled patio planted with a mix of flowering shrubs that visitors can view from two windows but not enter. The bees can fly out of the patio and into the adjacent parking lot and surrounding desert, they are:
European Honeybee
Koi Pond:
The center of the Conservatory has a small rectangular pond contained with raised simulated-rock ledges; one end has a small rocky waterfall feeding into it. The pond contains:
Koi - 6 breeds
Plecostomus (unsigned unidentified species, keeper pointed them out to me)
BUTTERFLY CAFE: (0 Exhibits)
After exiting the Conservatory, there is a small counter-service food stand and tables in a rather plain room.
SPINELESS GIANTS: (5 Exhibits)
Adjacent to the cafe is a very basic square room painted light green with standard terrariums for live animals as well as shadowboxes on the walls with pinned preserved butterflies and moths that are some of the largest species in the world. A sign on one wall announced that a new adjacent room of exhibits was being built, to be titled 'Rainforest Reptiles': the sign had pictures of emerald tree boa, dwarf caiman, a chameleon, and blue poison dart frog, but I am not including these in my species count.
2 pedastal terrariums:
Goliath Birdeater Spider
Asian Forest Scorpion
3 small wall terrariums, titled 'Native Desert Creatures':
Black Widow Spider
Malayan Leaf Frog
Bark Scorpion
TROPICAL WATERS (Also known as FRESHWATER EXHIBITS): (9 Exhibits)
The final exhibit room before exiting to the Butterfly Treasures gift shop is a long plain room painted blue and rather darkly lit to showcase its aquariums. While the map labels it as Tropical Waters, a sign above the doorway from Spineless Giants labels it as Freshwater Exhibits.
Long shallow raised pool in center of room:
This appears to have been built as a touch tank, including a handwashing station on a nearby wall, but is not currently used as such. It contains:
California Round Stingray
Horn Shark
Corner medium-sized wall tank:
Altum Angelfish
Discus
Redline Shark
Medium-sized wall tank:
Cuckoo Catfish
Electric Blue Ahli
Red Zebra Cichlid
Medium-sized wall tank:
Bala Shark
Leporinus
Tinfoil Barb
Medium-sized wall tank:
Red Blood Parrot Cichlid
Silver Dollar
Striped Raphael Catfish
Medium-sized wall tank:
Blue Tang
French Angelfish
Half-moon Angelfish
Yellow Tang
Medium-sized wall tank:
Chocolate Pleco
Duckbill Catfish
Giant Gourami
Iridescent Shark
Turashukin Catfish
Zorro Catfish
Medium-sized wall tank:
Black Pacu
Tiger Oscar
Medium-sized wall tank:
Black Harlequin Rasbro
Clown Loach
Harlequin Rasbro
Pearl Danio
Three Spot Gourami
Zebra Danio
SUMMARY:
By my count, the total number of exhibits currently at Butterfly Wonderland is: 20
By my count, the total number of species in permanent exhibits is: 87
The number of species I counted can be broken down into the following categories:
Mammals: 0
Birds: 6
Reptiles: 0
Amphibians: 1
Fish: 33
Invertebrates: 47
ENTRY/EXIT ROOMS: (0 Exhibits)
Guest Services is the first and last room that visitors encounter, with a small ticketing/reception desk and a photo greenscreen backdrop for purchasing pictures. The room has a large forest mural on one side, abstract butterfly decorations hanging from the dark ceiling, and the entrance/exit of the Butterfly Treasures gift shop. A small birthday party room is located to one side but its door was closed. A long narrow hallway labeled as the 'Queing Area' on the map leads into the attraction, past the restrooms and past the 3D Theater into the Butterfly Emergence Gallery described below. This hallway does have at least 4 brightly-lit wall exhibits of pinned preserved butterflies but no live exhibits.
3D THEATER: (0 Exhibits)
I did not go into the theater to watch the film that is included with admission so am only assuming there were no live exhibits inside.
BUTTERFLY EMERGENCE GALLERY: (3 Exhibits)
This darkened room is the foyer to the Conservatory that is the main attraction, and it has 3 adjacent wall exhibits behind glass that are brightly lit. Inside each are hanging shelves for attaching the chrysalides of all the species currently emerging to be transferred into the Conservatory, with small signs identifying each row of different species. For the species list, see the list of butterfly species in the Conservatory description below.
CONSERVATORY: (3 Exhibits)
The main attraction is this large rectangular room with concrete masonry walls painted green, a standard gabled steel-and-glass roof, and multiple concrete visitor paths surrounded by a wide variety of tropical and sub-tropical shrubs and small trees. This is the habitat for multiple species of free-flying butterflies as well as birds; while the birds are identified with signs, the butterflies are not due to the constant change of species so my list is compiled from 2 sources: the species listed in the visitor map brochure, and species signed in the Butterfly Emergence Gallery. It should be noted that not all of these species were necessarily on view that day, and that other species are very likely to be exhibited in the future depending on the latest shipment. The species are:
Free-flying Butterflies:
African Moon Moth
Arch-winged Cattleheart
Atlas Moth
Banded Peacock
Black and Tan Page
Black and White Helen
Blue Clipper
Blue King Shoemaker
Blue Morpho
Clipper
Common Lacewing
Costa Rica Clearwing
Doris Longwing
Great Eggfly
Great Mormon
Great Yellow Mormon
Grecian Shoemaker
Grey Cracker
Magnificent Owl
Malay Lacewing
Mexican Bluewing
Monarch
Paper Kite
Pearl Charaxes
Pink Cattleheart
Postman
Ruby Spotted Swallowtail
Sapho Longwing
Scarlet Mormon
Silver-studded Leafwing
Small Blue Grecian
Spotted Tiger Glassywing
Starry Cracker
Tailed Jay
Thoas Swallowtail
Three Tailed Swallowtail
Tiger Longwing
Tiger-striped Leafwing
Variable Cattleheart
White Morpho
Whitend Bluewing
Zebra Mosaic
Free-flying Birds:
Black-crowned Waxbill
Chinese Button Quail
Cordon-bleu (unsigned unidentified species, keeper said they were new)
Domestic Canary
Gouldian Finch
Orange-cheeked Waxbill
Honeybee Extravaganza:
This small exhibit and interpretive area on one side of the Conservatory has a contained apiary with glass sides for viewing a colony. It is connected to the outside world via a short tube to a walled patio planted with a mix of flowering shrubs that visitors can view from two windows but not enter. The bees can fly out of the patio and into the adjacent parking lot and surrounding desert, they are:
European Honeybee
Koi Pond:
The center of the Conservatory has a small rectangular pond contained with raised simulated-rock ledges; one end has a small rocky waterfall feeding into it. The pond contains:
Koi - 6 breeds
Plecostomus (unsigned unidentified species, keeper pointed them out to me)
BUTTERFLY CAFE: (0 Exhibits)
After exiting the Conservatory, there is a small counter-service food stand and tables in a rather plain room.
SPINELESS GIANTS: (5 Exhibits)
Adjacent to the cafe is a very basic square room painted light green with standard terrariums for live animals as well as shadowboxes on the walls with pinned preserved butterflies and moths that are some of the largest species in the world. A sign on one wall announced that a new adjacent room of exhibits was being built, to be titled 'Rainforest Reptiles': the sign had pictures of emerald tree boa, dwarf caiman, a chameleon, and blue poison dart frog, but I am not including these in my species count.
2 pedastal terrariums:
Goliath Birdeater Spider
Asian Forest Scorpion
3 small wall terrariums, titled 'Native Desert Creatures':
Black Widow Spider
Malayan Leaf Frog
Bark Scorpion
TROPICAL WATERS (Also known as FRESHWATER EXHIBITS): (9 Exhibits)
The final exhibit room before exiting to the Butterfly Treasures gift shop is a long plain room painted blue and rather darkly lit to showcase its aquariums. While the map labels it as Tropical Waters, a sign above the doorway from Spineless Giants labels it as Freshwater Exhibits.
Long shallow raised pool in center of room:
This appears to have been built as a touch tank, including a handwashing station on a nearby wall, but is not currently used as such. It contains:
California Round Stingray
Horn Shark
Corner medium-sized wall tank:
Altum Angelfish
Discus
Redline Shark
Medium-sized wall tank:
Cuckoo Catfish
Electric Blue Ahli
Red Zebra Cichlid
Medium-sized wall tank:
Bala Shark
Leporinus
Tinfoil Barb
Medium-sized wall tank:
Red Blood Parrot Cichlid
Silver Dollar
Striped Raphael Catfish
Medium-sized wall tank:
Blue Tang
French Angelfish
Half-moon Angelfish
Yellow Tang
Medium-sized wall tank:
Chocolate Pleco
Duckbill Catfish
Giant Gourami
Iridescent Shark
Turashukin Catfish
Zorro Catfish
Medium-sized wall tank:
Black Pacu
Tiger Oscar
Medium-sized wall tank:
Black Harlequin Rasbro
Clown Loach
Harlequin Rasbro
Pearl Danio
Three Spot Gourami
Zebra Danio
SUMMARY:
By my count, the total number of exhibits currently at Butterfly Wonderland is: 20
By my count, the total number of species in permanent exhibits is: 87
The number of species I counted can be broken down into the following categories:
Mammals: 0
Birds: 6
Reptiles: 0
Amphibians: 1
Fish: 33
Invertebrates: 47
