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By Woodrow J. Hinton
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If a butterfly were to sneeze in Krohn Conservatory, could the tiny blast cause a tidal wave halfway around the world in the Indian Ocean? Having recently examined up-close one of the thousands of butterflies soon to appear in the Krohn Conservatory's butterfly show, I'd have to say yes. These fellows have great big proboscises with which they suck food, breathe and -- presumably -- sneeze. And with a schnozz like that, you can bet they create some serious current.
Have you ever wondered, though, what it's like to be a beautiful, tidal-wave-in-the-Indian-Ocean-causing butterfly? Imagine for a moment that you have a great big curly straw attached to your face (that's your proboscis). Now unfurl that straw and with it suck up cheeseburgers, three bean salad, steak tartare or whatever it is you like to eat. Then imagine that you only have two weeks to live -- I know it's sad, but do it! Do it right now!
Pull apart this issue of CityBeat and using tape, string, putty or whatever else you might need, create for yourself a beautiful pair of giant butterfly wings. Now run around in an erratic, drunken path while flapping your arms like crazy. If you see any light, go straight into it as hard and fast as you possibly can. Is there danger? Who cares? All you know is that there is light and you've got to get there.
Throw in a little basking and a little puddling (it's not what you think, but yes, they do that too) and that seems to generally cover what butterflies get up to. Well, they also mate, but I was too embarrassed to ask my tour guide, Krohn Conservatory manager Ruth Ann Spears, how they actually get down to business, so I can't help you there.
Of course it doesn't really matter what butterflies do, because like Pamela Anderson Lee or Fabio, they just look great doing it. And with 32 tropical and North American species at this year's butterfly show, there will be plenty of good-looking butterflies to admire.
The title of this year's show is The Wonder of a Butterfly, and the Krohn has created a lush landscape modeled after English gardens of a century ago, which includes floral carpet bedding, hydrangeas, ostrich ferns, citrus trees and 25 other plants for both butterflies and patrons alike to enjoy. The centerpiece of the exhibit is a Victorian-style gazebo that houses the tropical varieties.
The tropical butterflies, Spears explains, must be contained within double netting to keep them from mingling with the North American varieties or escaping from the Conservatory altogether. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has strict guidelines for the butterfly exhibit. Their main concern is that tropical butterflies might carry secondary pathogens, which could put the native butterfly populations at risk. Also, in the caterpillar stage, they can become a nuisance to gardeners by consuming large quantities of specific plants.
The USDA even has guidelines concerning dead butterflies. (Sorry, kids.) Their beautiful corpses have to be disposed of in a sanitary manner. They are sealed in baggies and incinerated. So if you see a dead butterfly you want, don't bother asking. You can't have it!
Although the tropical varieties are isolated, the rest of the butterflies will interact freely with the patrons in the main butterfly area. Though when you first enter the exhibit you might not see them.
"It's something to see people's faces when people first walk in," Spears says, "because it looks like there's not any butterflies in there, and then they start noticing them everywhere."
And that's part of the fun, discovering butterflies as you make your way through the exhibit. It's kind of nature's version of the "Where's Waldo?" game. And it's a pretty easy game at that, as the butterflies are likely to find you before too long. They enjoy the salt of human perspiration, and in the warm, butterfly-friendly climate of Krohn Conservatory, it is likely that you'll have hungry butterflies lighting on your arm for an afternoon snack.
When I took a tour of the exhibit last week, there were few butterflies to be seen. While the staff at the Krohn was busy getting the exhibit ready, the butterflies were undergoing the final stages of metamorphosis. Down in the quarantine room, pinned to the tops of several ten gallon tanks hang the chrysalides of butterflies waiting to make their debut. It's difficult to imagine that these strange-looking pods -- they look more like gum drops than critters -- will soon become butterflies. These creatures go through a lot to become beautiful. Not even Cher works that hard at it.
While we are looking at a young Zebra Longwing that has just emerged from its chrysalis, its wings still wet from its former home, I ask Spears about some of the misconceptions surrounding butterflies.
"A lot of people think they're dying off because they don't see them very much," she says. "But their populations are down around cities because they like wide-open spaces, and they like weeds. So people who have perfect lawns are not going to get them. ... The lazy gardener attracts butterflies."
I admit to Spears my own misconception that the life span of a butterfly is only a few days. Of course all butterflies follow the "live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse" credo, but as Spears explains, the James Dean of lepidoptera is the sad creature known as the Luna Moth. Spears picks up the tale of this tragic beast: "That poor baby lives one day. It doesn't have a mouth as an adult --it eats so much as a caterpillar -- and its job in that one day is to find a mate, mate, lay eggs, and die. It doesn't even eat as an adult. It's pitiful."
It's not likely that you'll see the Luna Moth --nobody wants to leave a butterfly show all bummed out. But you will see the star of past exhibits, the Costa Rican Blue Morpho. And it will be joined by the Pink Cattle Heart, the Haitian Cracker, the Small Postman and a host of other exotically named species.
But if you're going to the show, here's a word of warning: Butterflies like to turn in early, and they usually hit the sack around 5 p.m. So if you show up around 4:30, they might be cranky. It's hard work being beautiful.
THE WONDER OF A BUTTERFLY at the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park begins on Friday and continues through June 18.
