Among insects, butterflies are the triple threat: They fly. They’re beautiful. And they have a narrative. It goes like this: Once I was a lowly, vermicular, thick-waisted creature, eating so compulsively that I burst through my skin. But through industry and perseverance — and a very long nap — I have transformed myself into the magnificent creature you see before you, ascending above the earth.
Thus, the butterfly’s appeal — and perhaps the explanation for why there are butterfly exhibits all over the Chicago area.
Interestingly, these exhibits don’t showcase the entire narrative, just the middle-age and golden years (chrysalis and butterfly). The childhood and adolescent stages of the life cycle (egg and caterpillar) are managed by butterfly farmers in tropical locations who supply the chrysalises to the butterfly houses. Why omit the earlier stages from the exhibits? “They’re eating machines,” says Tim Snyder, a curator at the Brookfield Zoo. The caterpillars are so rapacious they would eat through all the foliage and destroy the displays.
So the butterfly houses receive overnighted shipments every week, the delicate cargo wrapped in tissue paper. The chrysalises are pinned or hot-glued (I know!) to a branch or board in a temperature-and-humidity-controlled glass case. Visitors can view the chrysalises hanging in neat, labeled rows, some shuddering with their impending rebirth. Usually, visitors will see a few butterflies that have emerged and are drying their wings, waiting to be released into the exhibits the following day.
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum
Calling itself “Chicago’s oldest museum with the newest building,” the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum began in 1857 as the Chicago Academy of Sciences, specializing in the Illinois region. The centerpiece of the new building, opened in 1999, is the Judy Istock Butterfly Haven, an immersive “zoo” of 1,000 butterflies obtained from Ecuador, Columbia, Kenya, Malaysia, Australia, the Philippines — locales all over the world. The butterflies share the 2,700-square-foot tropical hothouse with a variety of birds and flowering plants. Each day at 2 p.m., new butterflies are released into the Haven, to the delight of young visitors.
In addition to this popular display, the museum runs a conservation lab, where biologists are nurturing the eggs and caterpillars of several species that are extinct or endangered in Illinois. The swamp metalmark, a small but exquisite wetlands butterfly, has been extinct in Illinois for a few decades, says Doug Taron, curator of biology and vice president of research and conservation. “We have the caterpillars in the lab right now,” he says, “and we’ll be releasing them in a wetland restoration project in Elgin.” Museum visitors have a window into the lab, and can see the rows and rows of paper cups holding the biologists’ charges. If you signal to biologist Karen Kramer Wilson (inside sticking leaves into the cups for the caterpillars), she’ll come out and answer your questions.
The museum also has a “citizen scientist” program: volunteers are assigned a location, then go out to observe, identify, count and report back their findings, contributing to the museum’s extensive database on the region’s butterflies. (More information on how to join the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network is at bfly.org.)
2430 N. Cannon Drive; 773-755-5100 or naturemuseum.org. General admission is $9 for adults, $7 for students and seniors, $6 for ages 3- 12.
Chicago Botanic Garden
A seasonal exhibit, “Butterflies and Blooms” at the Chicago Botanic Garden is presented in a temporary structure like a Quonset hut made of mesh. The butterflies come from all over the world — native North American species as well as some spectacular specimens from Africa, Asia and South America. At the Botanic Garden, they know how to arrange plants, so visitors have the pleasure of being immersed among the fluttering hordes in a beautifully designed interior landscape.
1000 Lake Cook Road, Glencoe; 847-835-5440 or chicagobotanic.org/butterflies. Through Sept. 2; admission to the exhibit is $6 adults, $5 seniors, $4 for ages 3-12.
Peck Farm Interpretive Center
In 1991, a Geneva family that had been farming on the land since 1843 decided to sell 395 acres to the Geneva Park District rather than to developers of tract houses and shopping centers. The result is a charming nature preserve that has walking trails, wetlands with indigenous flora, an outdoor education center — and a fabulous butterfly house (through Sept. 22) with 300 butterflies, including anywhere from 20 to 48 North American specimens.
The Peck Farm is also a great place to have children’s parties, and staffer Kim Bohannon will teach the children interesting butterfly facts — for example, that butterflies don’t spin cocoons, moths do. And she’ll teach them fun butterfly songs. For one, sung to the tune of “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” there’s “Head, thorax, abdomen, abdomen.”
Geneva Park District, 4038 Kaneville Road, Geneva; 630-262-8244 or genevaparks.org. The “Adopt a Butterfly” event is 10 a.m. Aug. 17; $20 per butterfly plus preregistration.
Brookfield Zoo
The butterfly house at the Brookfield Zoo, a favorite seasonal exhibit for many years, was enhanced in 2010 with a brick pathway, water features and improved plantings designed to attract butterflies with more varieties of color and enticing nectars.
The zoo’s horticulturalists also added labels to identify the plants — spiraea, coneflowers, Joe Pye weed, buttercup shrub, lavender — so that visitors will be inspired to go home and plant their own butterfly gardens. The gift shop has flower seed packets, butterfly nectar and butterfly houses to get you started.
8400 31st St., Brookfield; 708-688-8000 or czs.org. Tickets to “Butterflies!” are $4 for adults, $2 for children and seniors, plus admission of $15 to $10.50.
Morton Arboretum
The butterflies you’ll see at Morton Arboretum are the ones that occur naturally — no curated exhibit here. But the arboretum offers educational programming and butterfly-related classes for all ages throughout August:
“Beautiful Butterflies” is 9:30-10:45 a.m. Aug. 7 and 13: A sensory-based class for toddlers ages 18 to 35 months. Cost: $15 members, $22 nonmembers.
“Meet the Monarchs” is 9:30-11 a.m. Aug. 6 and 14: Children ages 3-5 act out the life cycle from crawling caterpillar to flying butterfly. Cost: $18 members, $25 nonmembers.
“Butterflies and Blossoms” is daily from 11 a.m. in August: Kids learn about butterflies and create a butterfly disguise to take home (free with $9-$12 admission).
“Monarch Madness” is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 24: All about the Illinois state insect. See butterfly eggs, see how scientists tag butterflies. Children take home milkweed seeds to start their own butterfly feeding ground (free with $9-$12 admission).
“Butterflies of DuPage County” is 1-3 p.m. Aug. 10: A photo presentation for adults, followed by an outdoor search for butterflies in their habitat. Cost: $8 members, $16 nonmembers.
4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle; $6-$12 at 630-968-0074 or mortonarb.org.
