Museum’s Butterfly Pavilion Will Make Your Heart Flutter

Spring is butterfly season and while the greater Los Angeles area has some colorful dazzlers this time of year, they can be hard to spot. And there are stunning species from all around the world you would have to travel to see.

But the Natural History Museum has gathered hundreds of different kinds of butterflies from around California down to South America. And every year, the Butterfly Pavilion is where you can both commune with the insects and learn more about them.

Butterflies you can see at the pavilion

For starters, it’s the home to about 10 different species of California native butterflies at any given time.

“The more common natives that you'll see are things like buckeyes, monarchs, and we recently released some queen butterflies,” said entomologist Lisa Gonzalez, program manager of Invertebrate Living Collections at the museum and lead staff person for the exhibit.

A common buckeye butterfly

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William Warby

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Another California butterfly you can see is the morning cloak.

“We just recently planted a willow tree in there so we're hoping that the morning cloaks are going to start laying their eggs,” Gonzalez said. “So, people are not only going to see adult butterflies, but a little bit later on in the season, they'll start to see caterpillars as well.”

The exhibit also includes dozens of butterflies from other parts of the world, like the blue morpho, which is native to Mexico, and Central and South America. They are one of the largest butterfly species.

A blue morpho butterfly

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Nancy Hughes

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An owl butterfly

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William Warby

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“I just love the coloration, their size, and their behavior,” she said. “They chase each other around and they're just so spectacular when you see them coming down the path. I've seen it so many times and it still stops me in my tracks.”

While the iridescent blue morphos are around the size of your hand, they’re not the biggest butterfly you'll encounter at the pavilion.

The museum started introducing the owl butterfly to the pavilion just last year. It impresses not only with a wingspan up to 8 inches, but with its eerie resemblance to its namesake.

And to the delight of many children and adults alike, the butterflies may land really close to you, or even on you, especially if you stay still for a bit.

Building a home for butterflies

Every year, the insects are purchased from vendors and sent to the museum when they’re in a chrysalis stage — the stage before the caterpillar emerges as an adult butterfly.

“From there, we wait for them to emerge inside the museum in a special room,” said Gonzalez. “And then we hand-carry them out to the pavilion.”

Plant life is critical to creating the right environment for butterflies to thrive, so the museum has placed a variety of plants to sustain them.

Butterflies only live a few weeks, so toward the end of the summer, the museum stops introducing new ones and allows nature to take its course.

Then the staff get to work to convert the space into another “living” exhibit — the Spider Pavilion, which opens every fall.

Even though it’s the Natural History Museum, the space spotlights not just dioramas of stuffed specimens and dead things in glass cases. Their “Living Collections” include birds, snakes and other insects — and of course, butterflies.

“When people come in and they have a chance to actually touch something or see something that's moving, it adds another dimension to how people are responding to the information that we're here to to share with the public,” Gonzalez said.

How to visit the butterfly pavilion

The butterfly pavilion is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Aug. 25, but reservations are recommended for a 30-minute time slot.

Entry is free for members and $8 in addition to general admission for non-members.

The Natural History Museum is located at Exposition Park and is open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Sunday, except for the first Tuesday of the month, when the museum is closed.