The Butterfly House

It was a cold Saturday in January and we decided to follow the BBC’s recommendation of ‘Things to Do’ at the weekend, by visiting the Butterflies in the Glasshouse at the RHS Garden, Wisley in Woking, just a short drive from London.

We arrived early and the place was already mobbed, so we made our way through the enormous gardens towards the Glasshouse. There were signs that spring was coming, snowdrops were in flower and bulbs were sprouting, yet there was still some snow on the ground and ducks swam in ponds partly frozen over.

 

The huge Glasshouse

I was looking forward to visiting the butterfly house. For me, butterflies are almost as if nature's paint box thought it would be fun to use every colour and pattern imaginable to create these beautiful and delicate creatures. I could happily spend time watching them float in the air like leaves or dance and flutter in a mesmerising fashion. But it is not just their exquisite eye-catching wings that attract me, but the way they change, their metamorphosis process from a caterpillar to butterfly that I find fascinating.

We all know the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. 'In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf...' And that is how it begins.

Blue Morpho Egg by Edward Backer on Flickr

From the little egg, a caterpillar is born and just like the story it is very hungry. It eats and eats with a voracious appetite. Some caterpillars 'can eat up to 27,000 times their body weight’ says one sign in the gallery area. 'If a baby grew as fast as a caterpillar it would be as big as a bus in a month', says another. In fact caterpillars need to regularly shed their skins to accommodate their growing bodies.

  

Blue Morpho Caterpillar, by Logo Noesis, Ada Gonzalez on Flickr

Caterpillars can also be exotically coloured to help protect themselves from predators. The bright colours are a warning signal for others not to eat them, as can be seen in this exotic looking Blue Morpho Caterpillar in this photo. They also use colour to camouflage themselves, or have hairs that contain poison, or may even smell or taste bad in order to avoid being a meal for a hungry bird or frog.

We make our way to a glass cabinet which has lines of hanging chrysalises. We can see the Blue Morpho emerging as a butterfly from the pupa, in its final stage of its lifecycle. Inside the chrysalis the caterpillar breaks itself down and most of its body turns to ‘soup’ before it's starts forming its pair of wings, six legs, head, pair of antennae, proboscis (tongue), thorax, and abdomen. Then it emerges as a beautiful adult butterfly. Its wings slowly fill with liquid and soon dry and harden so it can fly.

Through the window we spy the Blue Morpho emerging

We move on towards the main butterfly room which is filled with lush tropical foliage. The heat and moisture of the tropical forests are perfect conditions that help promote fast growth and many of the exotic flowers in this glasshouse are gorgeous in colour and shape.

We enjoy trying to spot and identify the floating creatures and take photos where we can. A Blue Morpho butterfly lands on a lady's coat and she kindly removes it and gently places it on a willing child's hand. The children are fascinated and all gather round to watch the enormous wings as they open and close, showing off their vivid electric blue.

The pattern of the Blue Morpho has circle like eyes to intimidate predators and the contrasting blue makes it seem like it is disappearing when it is flies.

Blue Morpho opening its iridescent blue wings which reach a wingspan of up to 20cm 

I'm surprised to discover that adult butterflies tend not to live for that long, on average between two to three weeks. This last stage of its life is focused on eating and finding a mate so it can lay eggs. The butterfly doesn't need to compete for the same food as the caterpillar, as it now uses it curly proboscis tongue as a straw to suck and drink nectar and fermenting fruit. I learn that they can also taste with their feet where their taste sensors are located.

We continue walking around taking photos. Waiting patiently for them to rest on a leaf and open their wings.

Malachite butterfly

Great Mormon

Common Mormon

The glasshouse has been a great place to watch butterflies and find out fun facts about the tremendous variety of species. I am also astonished to read about the migration of Monarch butterflies who spend the summer in Canada and northern America then in autumn when it is colder they fly to Mexico, over 2000 miles to hibernate, resting in the forest trees over winter. As the journey is so long, they stop to reproduce, so the next generation can continue the journey south. It is believed they use the sun and the earth's magnetic field for guidance.

The great migration of the Monarch Butterfly. Photo by Luna sin estrellas on Flickr

The Butterfly Glasshouse is a fun place to take children and ignite their imaginations, so they can picture all the dancing butterflies across the world. I visualise the Blue Morpho Butterfly fluttering across the tropical rainforests of Central and South America and Mexico, and believe it is perhaps one of the most astonishing and enchanting butterflies of all.

Butterflies in the Glasshouse event runs from 12th January to the 24th February 2013.