Ooooh ... We better take off our jackets. It’s warm! The temperature is always the same in here set at about 22–24° C with 70-80% humidity. Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees. Imagine how boring a butterfly farm would be if the butterflies weren’t flying!

Tuki: “When a butterfly doesn’t fly is it just called ‘butter’?”

Wait a second what are all these small Plexiglass cages for? I see there are thick green leaves inside this first one. If you’re squeamish around creepy-crawlies you might not want to look closer! Every leaf is covered with thick wiggling caterpillars! Some leaves have small white lumps attached to them too — caterpillar eggs. When the caterpillar comes out of the egg it will eat the leaf it’s on.

Butterflies pass through four major developmental stages in their lifetimes called metamorphosis — egg to caterpillar to pupa (chrysalis or cocoon) to butterfly — and we get to see each stage as they happen right here.

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