London's Butterfly Jungle

In Londons Natural History Museum, a new butterfly jungle exhibition captures the beauty and heat of a typical rainforest. The exhibition consists of a butterfly house filled with thousands of live tropical butterflies from Africa, Asia and South America. The environment of the rainforest is a perfect habitat for tropical butterflies. [Luke Brown, Butterfly House Manager]: There are three elements that we need to balance to get a very good display. One is light; the other is heat and humidity. The ideal environment for most of the species we keep or all the species we keep in here is a day time at around about 85-95 degrees Fahrenheit. As well as breeding in house, a few hundred new butterflies arrive each week to the butterfly house. [Luke Brown, Butterfly House Manager]: They come here in pupae form, which is between the caterpillar and adult stage, packed in boxes and a cotton wall and we bring them out this end, put them in the hatching room, warm them up a bit and within days they are popping out and then we release them into this environment." Butterflies are transported in Pupae form because it is the least active state in the process of metamorphosis. When the pupa hatches, it uses its body fluid to inflate the wings. Butterfly farming is often small-scale, thus benefiting the local communities and helping to protect the forests and natural environment in which the butterflies live. [Luke Brown, Butterfly House Manager]: Without butterfly houses like this, there would be no need for them to farm the butterflies, and obviously they would have to find another way to source an income, which unfortunately would probably be crop growing and destroying the environment that these beautiful things come from." Linoy Markram, NTD, London.