I went to the Butterfly House with Janette and her girls (emphasis on the plural!) I was just about to exit when I realized my camera lens had finally cleared up. It is so hot and humid in there, the lens becomes totally opaque with moisture, and then takes quite a while to acclimate.All these butterflies pictured are my favorite kind, the blue morpho. The only problem is they are much harder to photograph in flight. When they are resting, the beautiful blue is hidden inside of their folded-together wings. In the top picture I captured one feeding that briefly spread its wings. That picture represents the best of about 15 attempts to get their wing color.
I was very surprised to learn that virtually none of the butterflies in the enclosure are second-generation. The butterfly house discourages any breeding. Butterflies are very particular where they will lay their eggs. To keep them from breeding they don't have any plants that host eggs/caterpillars. They import the butterfly eggs from all over the world.
6 comments:
Have you ever seen the Brian Regan skit about working in a butterfly house? I just saw it like a week or two ago. He's funny.
And these are cool pics. :)
tres interesting.
Great photos! Love, toots
Is this the butterfly house at the St. Louis zoo? The one that is only 2 miles from your home?
Interesting fact about the breeding.
No. It's not at the zoo. But yes, the zoo is about two miles from my house. The Butterfly house, http://www.butterflyhouse.org is a stand-alone site, associated with the Missouri Botanical Gardens. It's not too close to my house- it's in the suburbs.
i'm waiting for some more photos. ls
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