May 14th, 2012

Getting Ready For Butterflies LIVE!

by Jonah Holland

Text & photos by Garrett McLees Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, PR & Marketing Intern
The butterflies arrived via FedEx

 

butterfly chrysalides

butterfly chysalis

Butterflies LIVE! doesn’t open until May 25th, but today I had a unique opportunity to see behind-the-scenes and get a first look at the arrival of the butterflies. None of the butterflies have emerged from their chrysalis yet, that made their transport much easier. They were shipped by FedEx and arrived in two small boxes, organized and grouped by species. Jay Forehand and Grant Howell then worked on sorting out the pupae by species and hanging them in boxes so that they can continue the hatching process. It was amazing to see the variations of color, shape, and texture in each chrysalis between the species.  gold butterfly chrysalides

Each pupae is glued to a piece of paper which is then glued to the box tops using a glue gun. (The process does not damage them, so no butterflies were harmed in the process.) This method is necessary because when the tops are placed on the boxes the pupae are able to hang down as they would naturally. It is difficult to predict when the butterflies will emerge, each will take as much time as it needs.

About Jonah Holland

Jonah Holland is Digital Content Manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where she has worked for 14 years overseeing social media, the blog, and the website. She is also a mom, yogi, open water swimmer, gardener, and seeker. She's been known to go for a walk in the Garden and come back with hundreds of plant photos, completely inspired to write her next blog post.

You May Also Like