Butterfly & Nature Conservatory in Key West, FL

Hubby and I recently took a vacation to the FL Keys. Just a long weekend to relax and get away. Since it was supposed to rain the last full day we were there, we went down to Key West to do "indoor" things. We stumbled upon the Butterfly and Nature Conservatory there. It was $10 each to get in, but was it ever neat!!! Here are pictures of some of the b'flies. They had an area where they hung chrysalides of various butterflies and you could watch them hatch. A sulphur b'fly was hatching when we went by. I highly recommend this place to any butterfly lovers! They had some really neat displays, like this one...

This is another display for the eastern hemisphere...

and one with insects from all over the world. The biggest one is about 4-5 inches long. ISHTA!

Now for pix of the butterflies... Some of these I don't know what they are, so if you know, please let me know :) This place has butterflies from all over the world, but they are not allowed to let them breed (that's all we need is one more exotic invasive plant, bug, fish, lizard, etc!). I think the Common Morpho was my absolute favorite. They seem sort of plain--until you see the INSIDE of their wings. Here's the outside of the Common Morpho (they like to rest on the trunks of trees and branches in this pose)...

Here is one with his wings open so you can see the irridescent blue...

I think this one is a Doris butterfly.

This is a Great Orange Tip butterfly...

I don't know what kind this is, but it reminds me of the Zebra Longwings we have in FL. I think it is a member of the same species as the Zebra LW, which is Heliconia.

This one is a Large Tree Nymph. It's a pretty buttery yellow.

This one is native to FL, a Malachite. I have not ever seen one of these in the "wild."

This is a Merchanitis Mimic (it looks like the Merchanitis butterfly, which is toxic, but the mimic is not)--for those of you in the US it is like the Viceroy b'fly that mimics the Monarch b'fly, the Monarch is toxic but the Viceroy is not.

I have not been able to identify either of these butterflies. The black and yellow one was really striking. The entire hindwing is bright yellow.

Here is a look at the conservatory. They had little streams and waterfalls with a path winding through it all. There were places here and there with fruit (mainly bananas) and puddling areas. It was very nice.

Here's another unknown butterfly. It's a beauty!

This one is the designated crossing guard ;) Don't know what it is either. I think it's some sort of clearwing b'fly.

I have not a clue what this one is either. The stripes on the upper wings were really more purple than what they show here.

Yet another unknown b'fly. I really liked the stripes on the body. I have not seen many b'flies like that--the tiger swallow tail has yellow stripes on it's body, but they run parallel, not perpendicular like this one.

...another shot of the unknown black and yellow b'fly.

And last, but not least, another unknown b'fly. Maybe the mimic again, but hard to say. The international book I bought only shows the inside of the wings, not the outside. I hope you enjoyed the virtual tour and highly recommend it to anyone going to Key West. It's at 1316 Duval St.--just around the corner from the southernmost point in the US buoy (or whatever that thing is), which I think is on Southernmost St.

I was there is March this year. I LOVED it too!
I have a ton of photos too, and don't know the names of hardly any of the butterflies in them, so you are doing good.
Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

Thanks, PL. I bought the Smithsonian guide book in the gift shop so I had a chance at ID'ing them. I went through the better part of 2 rolls of film. Had one b'fly land on my arm--boy did it tickle! It was walking around. Course you're not allowed to touch them, either. So I was standing there with the b'fly on my arm TRYING not to do the "tickle jig" (it looks something like the potty jig little kids do)