Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

Lepidopteramania

The American Museum of Natural History is thick with lepidoptera right now. Running through May, there is a live Butterfly Conservatory.Some of the butterflies in this steamy tube are enormous.Chances are very good that a butterfly or two will land on you, so this is a great place to bring the kids (the butterflies, after all, are hungry).Jim des RivièresAlso on display is Winged Tapestries: Moths at Large, stunning ink jet prints of moths by Jim des Rivières.Jim des Rivières(This one, we decided, is really a Norse god.)

Additionally, the current IMAX film is called Flight of the Butterflies and tells the story of the discovery of the long-distance migration of the Monarchs. It’s got one of my least favorite documentary tropes — actors playing real people — but you can’t have everything.

mthew

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3 responses to “Lepidopteramania”

  1. Evolution of X

    Our local life and science museum has a huge butterfly house and I love it. I dream of visiting the American Museum of Natural History though. There are about a gazillion things there I want to see.

    Reply
  2. maoryzae

    did you mean so that the butterflies would eat [the kids]…?
    [in any case,] excellent pictures, sir! Great detail, and–but?– no sign of the utter chaos just out of frame (occupational hazard of people and butterflies free-ranging on the same range)!

    Reply
    1. mthew

      Oh, I’m very good at keeping the chaos out of the frame.

      Reply

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