InsectNet forum

Last Monday, I went to an exhibit of live tropical butterflies at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. This temporary exhibit has been held annually (in most years) by the gardens for at least two decades now, in their rainforest conservatory. The species vary considerably year-to-year, depending on availability, but Morphos, Caligos and various Heliconiinae are always prominently featured. Here are some of the better photos I was able to get -

Great shots. How much longer will the exhibit be there?

58chevy wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 3:57 pm Great shots. How much longer will the exhibit be there?

Until April 14 -

https://fwbg.org/calendar-events/signat ... he-garden/

Nice... but somehow that sort of exhibit gives me a touch of vertigo when I see Morphos and Caligos flying with P. memnon and the odd Troides!

John

jhyatt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:36 pm Nice... but somehow that sort of exhibit gives me a touch of vertigo when I see Morphos and Caligos flying with P. memnon and the odd Troides!

John

I'll soon upload some additional photos, from exhibitions of previous years. And yes, they have occasionally had Troides spp.

jhyatt wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 9:36 pm Nice... but somehow that sort of exhibit gives me a touch of vertigo when I see Morphos and Caligos flying with P. memnon and the odd Troides!

John

Nowadays the specimen in the second photo is not called P. memnon, it's P. agenor agenor.

Adam.

I seem to remember that to get permits they are only allowed to import male pupae.

Adam.

There is a similar butterfly dome in Houston. They used to sell the specimens that had died for $2 each, but they had to stop doing that for legal reasons.

58chevy wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 9:11 pm There is a similar butterfly dome in Houston. They used to sell the specimens that had died for $2 each, but they had to stop doing that for legal reasons.

Is it the Cockrell Butterfly Center at the Houston Museum of Natural Science? -

https://www.hmns.org/cockrell-butterfly-center/

I haven't been to that place since the mid-90s, but as I recall, it was a far more impressive exhibit than anything that my local botanical gardens has ever had (undoubtedly because it's a permanent operation, rather than just a temporary one). In addition to the butterfly house, the center also displays (at least, at the time I visited) a nice assemblage of pinned insect specimens (once the private collection of Mike Whitley, which the museum purchased in 1987) -

https://blog.hmns.org/2017/06/we-dont-m ... ollection/

Yes, it's the Cockrell. Mike Whitley's collection is still owned by the museum but most of it is kept in a building that is not adjacent to the main museum. He kept collecting after he sold the collection. He is now deceased but his wife has the specimens he collected after the sale. I don't know how many drawers his wife has, but probably a fairly large number.
I used to visit the FW Botanical Gardens frequently when I lived there many years ago. There was no butterfly house then. Glad to see there's one now.