(Above) A postman butterfly, Heliconius melpomen, at Butterfly Explorers
Even if grey skies had circled the Natural History Museum all summer, Butterfly Explorers would have been a joy.
Taking a journey across North America, Africa, Asia and the Amazon rainforest (domestic flutterers take centre stage outside the central covered space), the tropical show has entranced youngsters by giving them a “passport”, with stamps awarded each time they spot butterflies within the lush jungle of passion flowers, peanut plants and orange trees.
As it turns out, 2010 has been a stupendously prolific year for the house, hatching newcomers with names like the zebra longwing, postman, lime swallowtail and the bright orange julia in a breeding ground which now counts 1,000 live butterflies.
A morpho butterfly,
Morpho peleides
“There are probably 200 species available to exhibitions, but some do better in the environment created than others,” says Luke Brown, the self-styled Butterfly Gardener whose expertise has been instrumental in the vintage year.
“Every house is different, so each time we set up a house it reacts differently depending on all sorts of factors. This year the house just clicked.”
The reason for this, he says, is because planners made it “far more plant specific.”
The colourful interactivity of the show has been a major factor in its success
“In previous years we just stuck in a load of nectar plants randomly – they’d been chosen for purpose, but it was almost a mish-mash of plants,” he reflects.
“This year we took far more time and effort on the types of plants that were brought in.”
Was Brown surprised by the success? “Not when you’ve been doing it for 30 years,” he laughs. “I built my first butterfly house when I was six, and since then I’ve made an awful lot of mistakes. Every year I work on these projects the mistakes are getting fewer and fewer and the houses are getting better and better.
The Papilio thoas C spreads its wings
“The planting’s very specific, so within South America you’ve got coffee trees and petifloras, in Asia the different bamboos and the citrus trees, and in Africa there are the bananas.
“You’ve got the playground outside, but the internal interactivity of the house is great. Sometimes the kids are more interested in the stamps than they are the butterflies, but it gives them so much more to do and makes it more of an event.
“You know, a lot of the adults just go in there and wander and marvel at the butterflies, but the very young kids have also got something to do and take home with them. That works very, very well.”
A morpho butterfly, Morpho peleides
This is the only house Brown runs on a full-time basis during the year. “To be involved in running a butterfly house on the front lawn of the Natural History Museum, for me, is a big coup,” he admits.
“We’ve got an amazing team of about 25 volunteers – about four come in each day. They’re not paid a penny but they love what they’re doing.
“All the volunteers will come in on the Monday after we close, and we’ll spend a whole day catching the butterflies to box up and send off to other exhibitions.
“We start removing all the plants, and at about four o’clock we pick all the lemons off the trees and have a sneaky gin and tonic. It’ll be quite sad to see it go, but it’s been a brilliant run.”
Images © Natural History Museum
Butterfly Explorers runs until September 26 2010, open 10am – 5.50pm. Admission £3.50 – £6 (free for under-3s, family ticket £15 – £17). Book online.
