The popular Butterfly Conservatory: Tropical Butterflies Alive in Winter returns to the American Museum of Natural History on Nov. 20th, with more than 500 colorful butterflies fluttering among colorful tropical flowers and lush green vegetation.
The butterflies - and giant moths - are from farms in Florida, Costa Rica, Kenya, Thailand, Malaysia, Ecuador, and Australia.
Featured species include iridescent blue morpho butterflies, striking scarlet swallowtails, large owl butterflies, and beautiful green birdwings.
The Butterfly Conservatory is celebrating its 23rd year at AMNH in 2021, where the coolest fall or winter day is transformed into a summer escapein 80-degree temperatures while you are mesmerized by the butterflies which flutter and the butterflies which stay still long enough for you to grab a photo.
Beyond being just beautiful, butterflies are important harbingers of environmental change, and the exhibit includes an educational component about the roles butterflies play in ecosystems and the importance of protecting them.
SEE ALSO
Best NYC museums for kids in Manhattan
Because the average life span of many butterflies is only two to three weeks, butterfly pupae are shipped to AMNH for the duration of the exhibit, and released into the vivarium after emerging.
Other pupae hang in a case in the vivarium, for a first-hand look as adult butterflies emerge from chrysalises and fly away just hours after adjusting to their new surroundings.
Here’s a short AMNH video about the process.
AMNH is open daily, 10am to 5:45pm, except Thanksgiving and Christmas The Butterfly Conservatory is FREE with museum admission.
The Butterfly Conservatory will be on view from Saturday, Nov. 20 through the end of May 2022.
Follow NYC on the Cheap
Twitter @nyccheap
Subscribe to the
NYCOTC daily email newsletter
The Butterfly Conservatory is inside a 1,200-square-foot vivarium, a freestanding transparent structure aflutter with activity, you and the kids interact with butterflies as you stroll along a winding pathway surrounded by tropical plants and flowers.
Powerful halide lamps shine down from the ceiling, simulating the sunlight that streams through a rain forest canopy. In the vivarium, monarchs, zebra longwings, paper kites, and other butterfly species flutter among people and plants.
Colorful educational displays outside the vivarium explain the life cycle of butterflies, the worldwide efforts to protect their diverse habitats, and the variety of butterfly species in New York State.
Learn about interesting adaptations, from the colored scales that form the intricate designs on butterfly wings to the intriguing relationships between butterflies and other animal species—monarchs, for example, are toxic to birds.
Other panels explain how scientists rely on wild butterflies to gauge the health of an ecosystem and how the Museum’s butterfly specimens offer a wealth of information to butterfly and moth researchers around the world.
AMNH Admission information
AMNH is open daily, 10am to 5:45pm, except Thanksgiving and Christmas The Butterfly Conservatory is FREE with museum admission.
When to get FREE museum admission to top NYC museums
Pay-what-you-wish admission is available only at ticket counters, where the amount you pay is up to you.
General Admission, which includes admission to all 45 Museum halls and the Rose Center for Earth and Space but does not include special exhibitions, giant-screen 2D or 3D film, or Space Show, is $23 (adults), $18 (students/seniors), and $13 (children ages 2–12). All prices are subject to change.
General Admission Plus One includes general admission plus one special exhibition, giant-screen 2D or 3D film, or Space Show: $28 (adults), $22.50 (students/seniors), $16.50 (children ages 2–12).
General Admission Plus All includes general admission plus all special exhibitions, giant-screen 2D or 3D film, and Space Show: $33 (adults), $27 (students/seniors), $20 (children ages 2–12).
About the American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History was founded in 1869 and is one of the world’s top scientific, educational, and cultural institutions.
There are 45 permanent exhibition halls, including those in the Rose Center for Earth and Space and the Hayden Planetarium, plus galleries for temporary exhibitions.
AMNH is home to New York State’s official memorial to Theodore Roosevelt, a tribute to Roosevelt’s enduring legacy of environmental conservation.
The Museum’s approximately 200 scientists draw on a world-class research collection of more than 34 million artifacts and specimens, some of which are billions of years old, and on one of the largest natural history libraries in the world.
Through its Richard Gilder Graduate School, the Museum grants the Ph.D. degree in Comparative Biology and the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree, the only such program at any museum in the United States.
Annual physical attendance has grown to approximately 5 million, and the Museum’s exhibitions and Space Shows can be seen in venues on six continents.
The Museum’s website, digital videos, and apps for mobile devices bring its collections, exhibitions, and educational programs to millions more around the world.
photo courtesy AMNH
This article was posted in 2019 and has been updated for 2021.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.