Dinner with the Butterflies

Alyssa and I went for dinner last night at the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory.  The event included unlimited access to the tropical greenhouse area which we made a few rounds through, both before and after dinner.  Within 5 minutes I think we went from 25°C and very humid to getting blasted by -25°C with a windchill much worse on our way to the car.  

I had never been to the Conservatory before but it was pretty neat.  They even have a Green-cheeked Conure (Pyrrhura molinae) named Cheecho and a gang of Common Quail (Coturnix coturnix) that scurry throughout the vegetation and at your feet.  The butterfly larvae are commercially grown, shipped in weekly and reared on site which was reassuring to know that these weren't just being pilfered from the wild.  

Part of the proceeds from the dinner went toward the Kossuth Bog Foundation which is working to restore one of the last spruce bogs in Waterloo Region (part of the bog exists on the Conservatory property).  I once heard somebody joke about stuffing a soccer ball into the farm tiling but I think the process might be a little more involved than that.

Here are a few butterfly highlights.

An Owl Butterfly (Caligo species), this crepuscular species is native to Central and South America and is one of the few species that occasionally lays eggs at the conservatory.  This one had a wingspan of about 15cm.

Rice Paper (Idea leuconoe), these were the most abundant, most were hanging from foliage for the night by the time we got there.  This species is native to Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines where it can be found in lowland rainforest or coastal mangrove forests. 

The Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides).  On our second round through these had become more active and we were able to admire the iridescent blue on the dorsal side; really stunning to watch.  Native to Central and South America this is one of the largest butterfly species in the world with a wingspan upwards of 20cm.

 A couple shots of Asian Swallowtail (Papilio lowi), native to southeast Asia.  The first photo is the male, the second the female.

A female Common Mormon (Papilio polytes).  This species is native to Southern Asia.  I thought it kind of looked like the butterfly equivalent of an Eastern Towhee.

If you're ever visiting the area, especially during the winter, it's a cool spot to check out!