Sunday, December 5, 2010

Butterfly Magic!


This morning, after a great breakfast at Bobo's, we visited the Tucson Botanical Gardens. Neither Ib nor I had been there before. Each "winter" they host Butterfly Magic.

All sorts of tropical butterflies are shipped in from all over the world. They arrive still in the crysalis and hatch at the Gardens. Then they are released into the climate controlled greenhouse.

Because none of the butterflies are native to this country, it is very important that they don't escape from the greenhouse. The volunteers told us that if a butterfly does escape, they must either catch it or kill it.

Once the exhibit ends the butterflies are shipped from Tucson to Denver, to a year-round butterfly exhibit.

Ever since I got my first camera I have been trying to take pictures of butterflies. So today was especially exciting for me. But, when the Garden volunteer brought in a box of newly "hatched" butterflies, you can imagine my reaction when he asked if I would like to hold one.

This particular butterfly was from Austrailia. And, they told us, it was one of the only species that you could differentiate between males and females...because the males are green.

His feet were sort of "sticky" and it felt funny crawling on my fingers. But when he started up my arm and got to my neck it was definitely a little creepy. Nevertheless, I was in awe of these fascinating little creatures.

Knox thought they were pretty neat, too!















We could have spent a lot more time, both with the butterflies and in the rest of the Gardens, but the cozy greenhouse was perfectly nap inducing. Poor Knox zonked out and we decided to call it a day. But we think this place will be on our to-do list again, soon!

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