Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Butterflies LIVE! first post!

Hi guys, its Jay F. This blog is for the most up to date information regarding Lewis Ginter's Butterflies LIVE! exhibit, directly from the source! Check in for weekly updates on any new species or news associated with Butterflies LIVE!

On 6-26-2009 we received over 250 chrysalides. Over the next week expect to see some new butterflies in the exhibit!

Be sure you don't miss these new species added over the past two weeks!

Salamis parhassus Forest Mother of Pearl
Salamis ancardii Clouded Mother of Pearl
Idea leuconoe Rice Paper Butterfly
Heliconius sara Small Blue Grecian
Heliconius charitonia Zebra Longwing
Papilio rumanzovia Scarlet Mormon
Morpho polyphemus White Morpho
Parides photinus Pink-spotted Cattleheart

This past Friday 6-26-2009 we received a couple new morphs* of some of our favorite Heliconius. New Heliconius melpomene and Heliconius ismenius morphs arrived, ask one of our Butterfly Technicians to help locate these new species and morphs.

*Many species of butterfly look different depending upon where they are from. So two members of the same species collected from two different locations in the same country may look very different. Biologists call these regional differences in wing pattern morphs. The butterflies still belong to the same species but look different!

JULY WILL BE OWL MONTH.
In July you will see a lot more owls in the North Wing than you normally would. This is because July is Owl Month! Butterflies LIVE! will be receiving 3 different species belonging to the genus Caligo: Caligo eurilochus (Forest Mort Blue), Caligo memnon (Giant Owl), Caligo oileus (Brown Owl). Owls can look very similar so ask one of our Butterfly Technicians to poin them out for you.

Each month Butterflies LIVE! will be feauturing a selected species or a group of closely related species.