October 6, 2018 — May 27, 2019
Timed entry only. Whitney Hall of Oceanic Birds, second floor.
[Beat of a musical instrument. Two fluttering orange-and-black butterflies near the same leaf, one sitting, one flying. A yellow butterfly lands amid foliage.]
Voice of Hazel Davies: Come visit the tropics at the American Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Conservatory,
[Close-up on one butterfly, focus change, another butterfly in the foreground appears.]
where you can walk through lush green foliage
[A striped butterfly sits on a different leaf.]
and blooming tropical flowers,
[Close-up of chrysalises hanging in a row, first a row of brown, then a row of green.]
all while learning about the butterfly life cycle, how butterflies live, and
[Several different butterflies flutter around leaves of a plant.]
why they're important in the environment.
[Close-up of a yellow-and-black butterfly hanging on a plant.]
There are over 500 individual butterflies at any time in the Conservatory,
[Wide shot of conservatory, with fluttering butterflies amid greenery.]
representing over 100 species, from countries as far-flung as Thailand, Brazil,
[Several butterflies fluttering around, landing on, or sitting in the feeding discs.]
Kenya, Australia, and beyond.
[Slow-motion of a sitting butterfly flapping its wings. Another butterfly flutters in the green. A third butterfly lands on the edge of a feeding disk. Another sits on a leaf. A pair of other butterflies flutter around a plant, others are shown sitting on leaves, showing variety of species referred to in voiceover.]
Meet species like the cruiser, longwing, julia, paperkite, and owl butterfly.
[A large butterfly shown sitting on an outstretched arm.]
One may even land on you. Find your favorite butterfly out of hundreds.
[Butterfly sitting on a feeding disk takes off. A close-up on a sitting butterfly.]
at the American Museum of Natural History's Butterfly Conservatory.
[Text on screen: Plan your visit to the Butterfly Conservatory today. www.amnh.org/butterflies]
Butterflies and moths make up a large group of insects known as the Order Lepidoptera (lep-i-DOP-ter-ah). The name—from the Greek lepido, "scale," and ptera, "wings"—refers to a prominent feature of adult butterflies and moths, the tiny scales that cover the wings and the rest of the body.
There are more than 250,000 known species of Lepidoptera, of which about 18,000 are butterflies. Based on their anatomy, butterflies are classified into five families. This exhibition features butterflies from three of the families: the Pieridae (PYAIR-i-dee), commonly known as whites and sulphurs; the Papilionidae (pah-pill-ee-ON-i-dee), or swallowtails; and the Nymphalidae (nim-FAL-i-dee), which includes morphos, longwings, and others.
Adult butterflies are wonderfully diverse in shape, size, and color. Active during the day, they live almost everywhere around the world, from Arctic tundra to tropical rain forests.