Butterflies Are Back

Pavilion of Wings at the LA County Natural History Museum

The butterflies have returned to the Natural History Museum. You'll find them in the Pavilion of Wings exhibit outside the museum. 

In this outdoor exhibit, monarchs, painted ladies, swallow tails, buckeyes and other butterflies flit around you. Common buckeye (Junonia coenia) and painted lady (Vanessa cardui) are two of species you're most likely to see around Southern California.

After watching butterflies sip from flowers, don't be surprised if your toddler wants to taste the flora around your home. (I've had to brush up on which of my plants are poisonous and which not.)  If you're interested in raising butterflies at home, you can purchase a kit in the pavilion gift shop. (See my post for details on this fun project.) The butterfly exhibit is open through early September.

On our recent visit, my son and I--along with our friends from Ramshackle Solid--also went back for another helping of the exciting Dinosaur Encounters. We were rewarded with a look at the triceratops puppet. This life-sized replica of a juvenile is manned by two puppeteers. The kids learned that triceratops is an herbivore.