Totally Texas -- Visit the tropics in Fair Park’s butterfly house

Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House and Insectarium

Texas Discovery Gardens

3601 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Dallas

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Most of the time I’m all about outdoor locations. But after a winter of cold, snow and sleet, I’m ready for a tropical getaway. Especially one so close I can get there and back in time to feed the cat. Something like the Butterfly House at Fair Park’s Discovery Gardens.

Outside, the weather was cold and gray when I visited this week. Inside, the two-story glass-walled conservatory, temperatures were in the 80’s, and the air was brilliant with greenery and tropical flowers. And teeming with butterflies. Because every day at noon, entomologist John Watts arrives to release butterflies newly emerged from the pupae the butterfly house receives from butterfly farmers in Texas and Central America.

The Discovery Gardens maintain the butterfly house to educate the rest of us about the ecological roles insects play. Because these roles aren’t unique to butterflies, the attached insectarium houses a variety of other insects. But as a staff member noted, most people feel happier getting up close with butterflies than, say, with cockroaches. Call it beauty versus the “ick” factor.

Some of the young volunteers present were, in fact, delighted to become perches for the brand new butterflies. The keys to persuading butterflies to alight are persuading them that you’re a plant. Preferably a yummy one, because butterflies, Watts said, taste with their feet.

To look like a plant, stand still as much as possible. And wear green to imitate fresh foliage, or bright colors to imitate a flower. The best clothing for attracting butterflies, Watts said, are tie-dyed or Hawaiian-style shirts, because butterflies have great color vision, in fact seeing colors into ranges of the spectrum invisible to humans.

To attract butterflies, it also helps to smell good. Or at least like fresh bananas, whose attractive powers Watts vouched for. Yes I asked, and no you can’t bring food into the butterfly house. But you may want to consider eating a banana before you enter the butterfly house to get the scent on your hands. Don’t brush your teeth afterward either, and if you’re really lucky, a butterfly may land on your face, searching for the scent.

The outdoor Discovery Gardens and indoor butterfly house are open all week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the last entry ticket sold at 4:45 p.m. A staff member called me this morning (February 7) to confirm that the butterfly house is open on this snowy day.  Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors (age 60 and older), $4 for children ages 3-11. Kids under three enter free.

For additional information, including group rates and programs, call 214-428-7476 or visit
http://texasdiscoverygardens.org/.

Totally Texas -- A butterfly obsession

Rosine Smith Sammons Butterfly House

Texas Discovery Gardens

Dallas Fair Park, Gate 6

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After a series of overcast days, I headed for the Butterfly House at the Texas Discovery Gardens in Fair Park. Bright-winged little creatures flitting among tropical flowers -- a perfect prescription to chase away the blues. If the sun doesn’t shine on your visit, don’t worry. Butterflies are less active on overcast days, which actually makes them easier to photograph. If possible, clear your schedule, as I did, to arrive for the midday release of butterflies newly emerged from their pupae. (Not from cocoons, on-site entomologist John Watts informed us. Cocoons are for moths, not butterflies.)

The Butterfly House’s USDA educational permit does not allow it to breed butterflies, but it receives pupae from butterfly farms around the world, including North Texas butterfly breeder Dale Clark’s Butterflies Unlimited farm. Butterflies arrive in in pupal form, and Watts chats with visitors daily as he releases a dozen or so newly-emerged insects into the Butterfly House.

On my visit, butterflies from at least half a dozen species climbed over the edge of their large net over a thirty-minute period. As they took to their wings in search of food and freedom, Watts let us pick his brain about all things lepidopteron.

What do butterflies eat? Only liquid food, chiefly nectar, but also fluids from various other sources, including the trays of rotting fruit tucked discreetly around the Butterfly House’s conservatory.

Why are they so colorful, anyway? Contrary to common wisdom, the dust-fine scales that give the wings their color don’t help butterflies fly. But don’t scrape the scales off -- they serve other essential purposes, warning off potential predators or allowing butterflies to identify members of their own species -- either as competitors or mates.

The last discussion brought up the question of how to tell male butterflies from females. Butterflies often do so by smell -- some male butterflies can distinguish the pheromones of females for miles. For human observers, Watts said, the best clues are behavioral. Female butterflies “taste” plant leaves for their suitability as host plants for caterpillars -- touching leaves with their feet, where butterfly taste organs are located. Males circle other males in flight to determine dominance.

The big Central American blue morpho patrolling the Butterfly House’s aisle, Watts said, was most likely a territorial male. He landed on the shoe of a Butterfly House volunteer, another sign of dominance.

So how do you encourage a butterfly to alight on you? Although it depends on the time of day, wearing white or light blue clothing -- even having white hair -- helps. As does your scent. In lieu of slathering yourself with butterfly pheromones, try a splash of Obsession perfume or the Avon’s Skin So Soft lotion you wear to repel mosquitoes. Butterflies love it!

The Butterfly House is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Last admission at 4:45 p.m.) Tickets are $8 for adults, $4 for children ages 3-11. For more about Texas Discovery Gardens and its programs, see www.texasdiscoverygardens.org/.

Want to see butterflies on the west side of the metroplex? Fort Worth Botanic Gardens hosts conservatory butterflies this year from March 3 to April 8. See http://fwbg.org/.