The Victoria Butterfly Gardens is a colouful place. The indoor tropical climate houses 50 different types of butterflies whose names are as colourful as their wings: Orange Tiger, Scarlet Mormon, Pink Cattleheart, to name just a few, make up some of the 3000 butterflies that are free flying at the gardens every day from March to October.
You can witness all stages of a butterfly's life at the gardens, from egg to caterpillar (larvae), pupa (chrysalis) to butterfly. In the butterfly nursery, beautiful adult butterflies emerge from their chrysalis everyday. Butterflies that don't breed in the gardens are imported during the pupa stage, from Europe, Central America, and Asia.
During a walk through the gardens, you'll see these butterflies and many more showing off their delightful colours.
The Common Blue Morpho butterfly emerges from a bright green chrysalis to show off blue wings in flight. ...More information below photos...
...Continue gallery information: The wings are folded, hiding their blue colour, when the butterfly is at rest.
The Brown Clipper butterfly spreads its wings to soak up the sun after a hectic zigzag flight through the gardens.
Though most butterflies live just a few short weeks, the Tiger Longwing butterfly can live for several months thanks to its rich diet of pollen. Most of the gardens' other residents drink nectar and fruit juices, as they would in the wild.
Birds and other animals out looking for a tasty treat might consider butterflies a great snack, so many species of butterflies boast eyespots on their wings. The Giant Owl butterfly has the most obvious of eyespots, his mimicking perfectly the eyes of an owl to frighten off any predators looking for lunch.
The Victoria Butterfly Gardens is a great place for children to learn about one of the fascinating lifecycles of our planet.