Butterfly Photo by Julian Boaler
By Julian Boaler ’14
Environmental and Plant Biology Major, Ohio University
Summer internship at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami, FL
Hey everyone,
Along with my time at Fairchild’s nursery, I’ve had the pleasure of working in their enclosed butterfly conservatory. The project was completed in December 2012 and has since greatly expanded the visitor base of the botanical garden. The conservatory features butterflies (and a few daytime moths) from all across Central America, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia and has been constructed under the most stringent USDA guidelines to ensure no butterflies escape from the compound. Butterflies are shipped in their cocoon stage to the conservatory, where they are pinned to small wooden blocks. Visitors then have the opportunity of watching a newly formed butterfly emerge from the butterfly laboratory’s open viewing chambers.
Click here for an online album containing photos of the butterfly garden and its inhabitants. The conservatory gets new species of butterflies shipped every week, so I unfortunately don’t know every species in the photo album just yet (sorry!). I’ll be sure to update the captions when I get all the names, and will also be sure to add more pictures to the album as time goes on. Enjoy!
Cheers,
Julian
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