Butterflies of Malaysia

Emerald Swallowtail

While we were attending a family wedding in Fort Wayne, Indiana a couple of weeks ago, we realized that the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory was a mere two blocks from the Allen County Public Library (second largest genealogy collection in the country, in case you were wondering).

Red Lacewing Landed on My Hand!

Cindy and her dad wanted to see the Botanical Garden, so I took a break from pursuing dead relatives at the library to check out the exhibit of Butterflies of Malaysia with them.

The Conservatory has put on this exhibit, which runs from mid-April to early July, for the past ten years, but this was the first chance we had to see it, and the butterflies were absolutely spectacular.

The exhibit was in a large enclosed tent inside the Conservatory, with a secure entrance and exit staffed by volunteers to make sure no butterflies hitch-hiked their way out of the enclosure.  Since these butterflies are not native to North America, the plants in the enclosure were carefully chosen to avoid plants that these species of butterflies normally choose to lay eggs on; nobody wants to encourage non-native species of caterpillars which could chew up local crops.

Great Orange Tip

Great Eggfly

Leopard Lacewing

It was a spectacular exhibit with species we would never ordinarily see, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing these beautiful butterflies.

Thanks, Foellinger-Freimann Conservatory!