Bye Bye Butterfly

by Beth Monroe, Public Relations and Marketing Director, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden

Last call! This is the final week of Butterflies LIVE! at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden and the butterflies are going out on a high note. Just last week a new shipment of chrysalides came in – including some species we’ve not yet had. (The last day of the exhibit is Sunday, October 11.)

Last Friday, Garden volunteer Caroline Meehan was hot glue-gunning the new chrysalides (don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt them) to foam core. The foam core is then placed at the top of plastic bins so the chrysalides can hang. It is in these bins that the butterflies emerge. Due to strict USDA guidelines this process has to take place behind-the-scenes at LGBG’s facilities.

But we can show you here what some of the chrysalides look like. Arrayed here is last week’s shipment before they were glued. Some were actually jumping around as I took this photo – ready to come out!

 
The beauty of some of these is  just indescribable. They look like miniature jewels. Check out these silvery Tithorea harmonia. I am curious to see what the butterflies look like — it’s hard to believe they could be more gorgeous than the chrysalides!

 
In addition to hot glueing the chrysalides behind the scenes, volunteer Caroline Meehan has been greeting the Garden’s guests in the Butterflies LIVE! exhibit throughout the summer and answering many questions about the butterflies.

 What’s the number one question these days?: “Where will the butterflies go?”

The butterflies get a “free” (for them, anyway!) trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., and will join the Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution exhibit. See 360 degree views of their new home in the Butterfly Pavilion.

So, if you find yourself missing the butterflies, all you have to do is “fly” up Interstate 95. Tell ’em we said hello!