Appearing in the Bulletin of the Allyn Museum Sept. 5, the study creates a baseline for understanding how different plant and animal species have spread throughout the Caribbean.

“Biodiversity studies are extremely important because they give us clues about where things were and how they evolved over time so we can better understand what may happen in the future,” said study co-author Jacqueline Y. Miller, curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity on the UF campus. “We’re also looking at climate change over time, and butterflies are biological indicator species since they are associated with particular plants as caterpillars and often found in particular habitats.”

During a seven-day trip to the site in January, researchers collected 1,100 specimens representing 192 moth and 41 butterfly species, including the invasive lime swallowtail whose proximity to the U.S. poses a threat to citrus plants. Researchers are freezing tissue samples from many of the collected specimens for future DNA analysis and expect to later describe new species, said lead author Deborah Matthews Lott, a biological scientist at the museum.

“Guantanamo is a special area because it’s a desert-type habitat due to the rain shadow effect from the mountains,” Lott said. “There’s fewer species there, but there’s going to be a tendency for more specialized endemic species.”

Leased to the United States in 1903, the land has unintentionally become a wildlife refuge, offering researchers the opportunity to better understand the island’s natural habitats. Located in the southeast corner of Cuba, its unique and complex geological history of volcanic activity, erosion and shifting sea levels resulted in geological deposits closely associated with marine environments.

“We are comparing the moths and butterflies collected at GTMO to those recorded from the U.S., Bahamas, other nearby islands and Central America,” Miller said. “With the historical geology of the area, there are some potentially new species and such surveys enable us to better understand the evolutionary history of butterflies and moths.”

Cuba is the largest island in the West Indies and researchers’ knowledge of its geological and paleontological history is mainly based on published articles, said co-author Roger Portell, the Florida Museum’s invertebrate paleontology collections manager. Portell has led fieldwork on the naval station since 2007.

“Because it is a military base — and this is true for many military bases, which typically have large areas of land — people are not trampling, bulldozing or developing the land,” Portell said. “So there is a large area of land in the southeast corner of the island that has basically been untouched for 100 years.”

Portell and other museum researchers will continue studying biodiversity at the naval station to create a repository of specimens and information for scientists, as well as to help develop a plan for conserving the natural habitat, Portell said. By incorporating information about the geology, paleontology and animals inhabiting the land today, the study creates a ‘ground zero’ image of the area that is useful as a baseline for continuing research, said Daniel Janzen, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Pennsylvania.

“In the tropics, there are very few places where people have invested a lot of time, over time, and pooled the information together about one place like that,” Janzen said. “What they did was pick out one spot, try to learn everything they could and put it all together into one paper, so anybody working there has got the whole package of information at one time. That, to me, is one of the major significances of the study.”

Museum researchers plan to conduct additional fieldwork on the base in December.

“The military is working to preserve the natural habitats, so they’re interested in knowing about the animals, the plants and what’s native and non-native,” Portell said. “Now that we have really good comparative material, we can compare that to Florida and other states in the southeast U.S., the Caribbean, Central America and South America and basically fill in some of the blanks in our knowledge.”

Study co-authors include Terry Lott and James Toomey of the Florida Museum.

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Credits:

Writer: Danielle Torrent
Media Contact: Paul Ramey, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu, 352-273-2054
Source: Deborah Matthews Lott, dlott@flmnh.ufl.edu, 352-273-2016
Source: Jacqueline Y. Miller, jmiller@flmnh.ufl.edu, 352-273-2016

The research shows different species exhibit unique foraging behaviors, and the study may be used to build more effective, species-specific synthetic lures for understanding pollinators, insects on which humans depend for sustaining many crops.

In a study appearing online in April in the journal Psyche, researchers used multi-colored landing pads and baits in the Florida Museum of Natural History’s McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity on the UF campus to determine that some butterflies use both sight and smell to locate food, while others rely primarily on smell.

“Butterflies are a great model for studying the environment and we can move in different directions from here in terms of application,” said Florida Museum collection coordinator and study co-author Andrei Sourakov. “We’ve shown choosing certain scents or colored plants might depend on what species you want to attract – if we can determine how to attract butterflies, perhaps we can also trap pest moths that lay eggs in agricultural fields.”

Alexandra Sourakov began the research for a local science fair competition in 2009, spending weekends and after-school hours conducting experiments in the Florida Museum’s Butterfly Rainforest exhibit.

“In eighth grade, we had to design a project, and I spend a lot of time around butterflies because my dad works with them,” said Eastside High School sophomore Alexandra. “I’ve always been curious how they were able to locate their food, whether they fed on flowers or fruit, and so I started looking at it in the Butterfly Rainforest.”

Alexandra placed red, yellow and black cardboard landing pads covered with honey, and observed flower-feeding species had a greater preference for the red color. But the exclusively fruit-feeding Blue Morpho showed no preference for a particular color. Mango, honey and green, ripe and fermented bananas were presented to fruit-feeding butterflies, and fermented bananas proved most attractive.

After winning first prize in eighth grade at the state science fair, Alexandra Sourakov was invited by study co-author and science fair judge Adrian Duehl to expand her study and conduct chemical analysis at the U.S. Department of Agriculture on UF’s campus.

“Of about 600 butterflies attracted to bait, half of them were the Blue Morphos, so it was a logical species to focus on for the chemical part of the study,” Andrei Sourakov said.

Gas chromatography coupled with parallel detection by mass spectrometry and electroantennography (measuring antennae output to the brain) were used to determine which chemicals that smelled like fermented bananas cause reactions in the Blue Morpho butterflies’ body parts, including antennae, proboscis, legs and labial palpi, which are small projections protruding from the head. Surprisingly, all the organs reacted to the same range of chemicals except the labial palpi.

“It might have been expected that the results were species-specific because each species feeds on different food, but I was surprised by the results from the body parts because I wasn’t even sure if any of them except the antennae would react to the volatile chemicals,” Alexandra Sourakov said. “That was interesting because it shows a joint message may be sent to the brain from these different organs. This expands our understanding of butterflies’ sense of smell.”

Little is known about the function of the labial palpi and their contrasting reaction to the chemicals poses new questions about how different organs are used in finding food, said Adriana Briscoe, an associate professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California Irvine who studies how color vision affects foraging behavior in butterflies.

“What’s nice about this study is that it’s multi-disciplinary, in that it looks at both vision behavior and olfactory behavior and physiology,” Briscoe said. “It’s very interesting that they found the different compounds in fruit are sensed by different body parts of the butterfly and it suggests that different organs are specialized for detecting different compounds.”

Andrei Sourakov initiated the study as a means to involve young people in research and Briscoe agrees that, “the more young kids or high school kids that can get involved in doing science, the better off we are as a society.”

“I would love to see more of this sort of thing done,” Briscoe said. “It’s challenging to engage high school students with science, and I think butterflies are a wonderful way to draw them in.”

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Source: Andrei Sourakov, 352-273-2013, asourakov@flmnh.ufl.edu
Alexandra Sourakov, alexandra.sourakov@gmail.com
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

Insects use camouflage to protect themselves by looking like inanimate or inedible objects, while mimicry involves one species evolving similar warning color patterns to another.

The study in the current issue of The Annals of the Entomological Society of America helps scientists better understand how organisms depend upon one another, an important factor in predicting how disturbance of natural habitats may lead to species extinctions and loss of biodiversity.

“Mimicry in general is one of the best and earliest-studied examples of natural selection, and it can help us learn where evolutionary adaptations come from,” said UF lepidopterist Keith Willmott, lead author of the study and an associate curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.

Bright warning coloration has evolved in many insects with physical or chemical defenses and further research into how insects metabolize plant toxins for their own benefit has potential use in the medical field.

“It’s very interesting how caterpillars can detoxify a plant’s poisonous chemicals and resynthesize them for their own chemical defense or for pheromones,” said Florida Museum collection coordinator and study co-author Andrei Sourakov. “We can look at the caterpillars’ metabolic systems to understand how they deal with secondary plant compounds, the toxic plant substances used for centuries as tonics, spices, medicine and recreational drugs.”

Based on the number of eggs laid by a single female butterfly, scientists estimate about 99 percent of caterpillars die before reaching the pupal stage. Survival tactics include sharp spines, toxic chemicals and hairs accompanied by bright warning coloration.

The study focuses on two groups of Neotropical caterpillars: Danaini of the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola and Ithomiini of the upper Amazon in eastern Ecuador. Sourakov raised and observed danaine caterpillars, including the monarch butterfly and its relatives. These species apparently form Müllerian mimicry rings, in which toxic species adopt the same warning color patterns so a predator will more quickly learn which species to avoid.

In Ecuador, Willmott and study co-author Marianne Elias, from the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, found that 22 of 41 ithomiine caterpillars displayed some kind of warning coloration. Five exhibited a previously undocumented pattern with a bright yellow body and blue tips, and four were likely Batesian mimics, in which edible species adopt the coloration of an unpalatable model species for protection. These “freeloaders” only appear to have the defense mechanisms of the model species.

“They act almost like parasites, because the mimics are actually edible and therefore deceive predators without having to invest in costly resources to maintain toxicity,” Willmott said. “Such a system can only be stable when the mimics are relatively rare, otherwise predators will learn the trick and attack more individuals of both mimics and models, driving models to evolve novel color patterns to escape the predators.”

Mimicry may be relatively rare in caterpillars because it is more difficult for them to establish bright coloration, Willmott said. A brightly colored caterpillar has less chance of evading predators than a mobile adult butterfly.

“In adults, bright coloration may be favored by sexual selection for signaling to males and females,” Willmott said. “Bright colors may be disadvantageous since they attract predators, but advantageous for attracting mates. Once established, bright colors might then be modified by natural selection for mimicry, another possible reason why mimicry seems to evolve much more frequently in adults than in caterpillars.”

However, Sourakov believes mimicry is more common in caterpillars than scientists realize, but may receive less attention because larvae must be raised to adulthood to identify mimicry complexes, a process that takes weeks of lab work. Also, few collections of immature stages are maintained, and colors are not as well preserved in caterpillars.

“We know mimicry is an important ecological process for several species of animals, and I hope this study will give people incentive to further research immature stages of insects,” said Andre Victor Lucci Freitas, a professor in the Instituto de Biologia at Universidade Estadual de Campinas. “We need to remember in most insects, immature stages are the most abundant.”

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Source: Keith Willmott, 352-273-2012, kwillmott@flmnh.ufl.edu
Andrei Sourakov, 352-273-2013, asourakov@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Whether by buzzing, singing, cawing or hissing, plenty of animals boast their own form of communication. But researchers now hope to unlock a common predator-prey language found in insects and mammals: echolocation in hawkmoths and bats.

“Moths and bats are completely unrelated yet they are talking to each other,” said principal investigator Akito Kawahara, assistant curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum of Natural History. “We can’t hear it, but they certainly can, so we’re trying to do some experiments where we let the two organisms fly together and see how they interact.”

The National Science Foundation recently awarded Kawahara $260,000 to research hawkmoths’ use of echolocation as a defense mechanism against predatory bats. The grant will fund research in Ecuador, French Guinea and Borneo, molecular biology lab work at the Florida Museum, and experiments at a live bat cage in Boise, Idaho, run by co-principal investigator Jesse Barber, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Boise State University.

“There isn’t much work like this done on insects, and it has mostly focused on grasshoppers and crickets communicating with each other,” Kawahara said. “Right now, we have a really confusing ball of information – we have to try to untangle it and determine the many communication mechanisms within the group.”

Previous research shows other moths use sonar defense against bat predators by “jamming” the bats’ echolocation with a sound that confuses them. Based on the fossil record, interaction between moths and bats dates back at least 50 million years and researchers hope to understand how their coexistence may have affected their evolution, including the development of ears in hawkmoths, which are found in their mouths. Hawkmoths make sounds using their genitals and another aspect of the project will address preliminary evidence they use this form of communication in mating.

“We don’t really understand when and how sound production and the ability to hear arose in hawkmoths, but it looks like one led to the other and we don’t know which came first,” Kawahara said.

Hawkmoths are among the fastest and most proficient flying insects. Unlike butterflies, which land on a flower to drink nectar, some hawkmoths hover in midair, similar to hummingbirds. They have wingspans that can reach 6 inches and a curled proboscis, or tongue, up to 10 inches long.

“We’re not only trying to understand the evolution of sound production and hearing, but also the evolution of nectar feeding,” said Kawahara, who will primarily focus on the molecular biology research for the project. “By using genetics, we can build an evolutionary tree to see when and how these things have happened.”

More than 1,000 species of hawkmoths occur worldwide, with the highest diversity in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Researchers will introduce hawkmoths to live bat cages and use devices to measure the different echolocation frequencies and document patterns in as many species as possible. High-speed video cameras will create 3-D reconstructions of confrontations and Kawahara said he also hopes to use the footage for educational and outreach purposes in the future.

“There’s a lot of really interesting stuff going on at night,” Kawahara said. “It’s just like a battle out there – bats versus moths – we just don’t know much about it because it happens in the dark and we can’t hear it.”

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Source: Akito Kawahara, 352-273-2018, kawahara@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Danielle Torrent, dtorrent@flmnh.ufl.edu
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

Elementary, middle and high school students in Florida who receive an ‘A’ or ‘S’ grade in science can present their latest report card for free admission to the Butterfly Rainforest with a paid regular price adult admission. Alachua County students receive their next report cards Nov. 8.

The offer is valid until the next report cards are issued. A student receiving another ‘A’ or ‘S’ grade on their next report card would again qualify for the offer through the end of the following grading period.

” ‘A for Science’ is such a popular program that we decided it should not be limited to just a few counties,” said Jaret Daniels, Florida Museum assistant director of exhibits and public programs. “We want to showcase the importance of science statewide, encourage students to do well in school and reward them for receiving outstanding grades.”

The program was available to students in Alachua, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Gilchrist, Levy, Marion, Putnam and Union counties in 2010.

The Butterfly Rainforest is a 6,400-square-foot, lush, tropical garden with hundreds of living butterflies from around the world, including 60 to 80 different species at any given time.

Children younger than 12 must be accompanied by an adult. This offer has no cash value and cannot be combined with other offers or discounts. Butterfly Rainforest admission is $10.50 for adults ($9 Fla. residents) and $6 for ages 3-17.

For more information about this promotion or other museum events, visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu or call 352-846-2000.

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Source: Jaret Daniels, 352-273-2022, jdaniels@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Discover the importance of pollinators at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s sixth annual ButterflyFest from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 22-23.

Festival visitors may enjoy free presentations on area hummingbirds, bats in the Caribbean, the practice of eating insects and hear keynote speaker and Harvard lepidopterist Naomi Pierce.

An outdoor children’s area will provide younger visitors the opportunity to stay active while participating in fun, educational activities about pollinators.

“The new outdoor children’s activity area is going to be a great place for children to learn about butterflies and different pollinators while playing games and interacting with each other,” said Florida Museum education assistant Amanda Erickson.

A three-day plant sale beginning Friday, Oct. 21 features more than 100 species of accent, host, native and nectar plants, with museum employees and volunteers available to offer advice on butterfly gardening and plant selection. Visitors may also enjoy free activities like butterfly bingo, crafts, costume creation, a pollinator parade and more.

Area nonprofit organizations scheduled to offer engaging activities include the Alachua County Beekeepers Club, Lubee Bat Conservancy, Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo and the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society.

Area groups on the activity schedule include the Howard Bishop Middle School Band, the University of Florida juggling club Objects in Motion and the Isle of Skye Highland Dance Studio.

The museum will also offer a behind-the-scenes tour of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity and a “Picture Perfect: Rainforest Photography” workshop. Pre-registration is required for both activities.

The behind-the-scenes tour takes visitors into the research areas to see one of the world’s largest collections of butterflies and moths. Participants must be 8 or older. The cost is $40 for museum members and $45 for non-members.

“Picture Perfect-Rainforest Photography” allows participants to take pictures in the Butterfly Rainforest using tripods or other photography equipment not usually permitted in the exhibit. Participants must be 18 or older. The cost is $25 for museum members and $28 for non-members.

Keynote speaker Pierce plans to discuss her research proving Vladimir Nabokov’s theory that Polyammatus blues originated in Asia and traveled to North America via the Bering Strait. She also proved that this group of butterfly species arrived in North America in five separate waves.

Admission to the museum and ButterflyFest presentations and activities are free. There is an admission fee for the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit.

Food, merchandise and other vendors may charge for their services. The museum does not have an ATM, so visitors are encouraged to bring cash if they would like to purchase items from vendors. Rainforest admission may be paid via cash, credit card or debit card.

ButterflyFest is sponsored by The Gainesville Sun and Cox Communications.

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Source: Amanda Harvey (Amanda Erickson), 352-273-2062, aerickson@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

ButterflyFest Activity Schedule
10 a.m.-5 p.m., Oct. 21-23

Fri. Oct. 21
10 a.m.-5 p.m. -Plant Sale

Sat. Oct. 22
8:30-9:30 a.m.
-Picture Perfect – Rainforest Photography (fee)
-McGuire Behind-the-Scenes Tour

10 a.m.-5 p.m.
-Plant Sale
-Pollinator Costume Creation
-Butterfly Hop
-Bean Bag Toss
-Nonprofit Organization Family Activities
-Sack Races
-Pollinator Challenge
-Vendors

10:30-11 a.m. -Pollinator Photography Contest Award Ceremony

11 a.m. -Gainesville Suziki Players

11:30 a.m. -Pollinator Parade
-Butterfly Bingo

12:30-1:15 p.m.
-The Butterflies and Moths of Japan: Japanese Culture, Collecting and Research

1 p.m. -Butterfly Release

1:30 p.m.
-Keynote Speaker Naomi Pierce: Nabokov’s Blues: Cradle-robbing, meat eating, and ant-loving caterpillars
-Isle of Skye Highland Dance Studio

2 p.m. -Pollinator Parade

2:30 p.m.
-The Sedoctaves
-Butterfly Bingo

3:15-4 p.m. -Moon Tan: Exploring the Patterns of Distribution of Caribbean Island bats

3:30 p.m. -Butterfly Release

Sun. Oct. 23
8:30-9:30 a.m.
-McGuire Behind-the-Scenes Tour (fee)
-Picture Perfect – Rainforest Photography (fee)

10 a.m.-5 p.m.
-Plant Sale
-Pollinator Costume Creation
-Butterfly Hop
-Bean Bag Toss
-Nonprofit Organization Family Activities
-Sack Races
-Pollinator Challenge
-Vendors

11:30 a.m.
-Pollinator Parade
-Butterfly Bingo

1 p.m. -Butterfly Release

1:30 p.m.
-Objects in Motion
-Hummingbird occurrences around Gainesville – beyond the Ruby-throated

2 p.m. -Pollinator Parade

2:30 p.m.
-Howard Bishop Middle School Band
-Butterfly Bingo

3:15-3:45 p.m. -Entomophagy

3:30 p.m. -Butterfly Release

-###-

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History is accepting entries today through Sept. 9 for the third annual Pollinator Photography Contest. Winners will be announced Oct. 22 at the sixth annual ButterflyFest.

The national contest seeks to promote awareness of local pollinators through photography. All entries must include at least one pollinator, such as a bat, bee, bird, butterfly or moth.

Entry forms are available online at www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflyfest and at the Florida Museum of Natural History visitor services desk. Completed entries may be submitted in person at the museum or The Gainesville Sun, which is sponsoring the contest, or mailed to: Florida Museum Pollinator Photography Contest, P.O. Box 112710 Gainesville, FL 32611, or The Gainesville Sun, 2700 S.W. 13th St., Gainesville, FL 32608.

The contest offers two categories: adult, ages 18 and older; and junior, ages 10-17. Individuals may submit a maximum of three entries, which are $10 per photograph for the adult category and $8 per photograph for the junior category.

First- and second-place winners in each category will receive cash prizes and third-place winners will receive Butterfly Rainforest tickets. Winning entries and honorable mentions will be published in The Gainesville Sun on Oct. 23 and featured on the ButterflyFest website. The museum will also display winning photographs through Nov. 30 in its Central Gallery.

“The contest is an opportunity to showcase the talent of the lovers of bees, birds, butterflies and other pollinators and to possibly discover a hidden jewel,” said Florida Museum audiovisual coordinator Jeff Gage, who will serve as a contest judge.

Judges will select winning entries based on the depiction of the pollinator in its natural setting, the clarity, focus and attractiveness of the image and whether the photo was received or postmarked within the designated timeframe, between Aug. 22 and Sept. 9.

“Our environment produces photographic challenges and opportunities for all skill levels, so the judges are excited to see what images participants can capture,” Gage said.

For more information about the ButterflyFest Pollinator Photography Contest, email photo-office@flmnh.ufl.edu or visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflyfest/photo_contest.htm.

ButterflyFest is dedicated to increasing awareness of Florida’s butterflies as fun, fascinating ambassadors to the natural world. Event activities and presentations promote inquiry and provide a call to action for the conservation and preservation of backyard wildlife and habitats.

This year’s keynote speaker is Naomi Pierce, curator of Lepidoptera at the Harvard University Museum of Comparative Zoology. Pierce’s research focuses on the biodiversity and evolution of insects, especially butterflies and their symbionts, or the organisms they have a relationship with, as well as behavioral ecology.

Through her research, Pierce recently proved Vladimir Nabokov’s theory that Polyammatus blues originated in Asia and traveled to North America via the Bering Strait. She also proved that this group of butterfly species arrived in North America in five separate waves.

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Source: Jeff Gage, 352-273-2038, jgage@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Alyssa Wang
Media contact:  Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

ButterflyFest is dedicated to increasing awareness of Florida’s butterflies as fun, fascinating ambassadors to the natural world. Event activities and presentations promote inquiry and provide a call to action for the conservation and preservation of backyard wildlife and habitats.

“We are extremely excited to have Dr. Pierce as our keynote speaker this year,” said Jaret Daniels, Florida Museum assistant director of exhibits and public programs. “Not only is her research groundbreaking, but she speaks of her work with tremendous passion; a joyous intensity that can’t help but spark your interest.”

Pierce’s research focuses on the biodiversity and evolution of insects, especially butterflies and their symbionts, or the organisms they have a relationship with, as well as behavioral ecology.

Through her research, Pierce recently proved Vladimir Nabokov’s theory that Polyammatus blues originated in Asia and traveled to North America via the Bering Strait. She also proved that this group of butterfly species arrived in North America in five separate waves.

Before she began teaching at Harvard in 1990, Pierce was a research lecturer at Christ Church College at Oxford University, a researcher in the university’s department of zoology and an assistant and associate professor at Princeton University. She earned her bachelor’s in biology at Yale University and her doctorate in biology at Harvard.

Pierce has received numerous awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship and MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. She is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Senior Fellow of the Harvard Society of Fellows.

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Source: Jaret Daniels, 352-273-2022, jdaniels@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Alyssa Wang
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Save the date to celebrate wings and backyard things at the Florida Museum of Natural History’s sixth annual ButterflyFest Oct. 22 and 23.

The free event includes tagged Monarch releases, plant sales, special presentations and much more.

“ButterflyFest is the museum’s signature event,” said Jaret Daniels, Florida Museum assistant director of exhibits and public programs. “We hope visitors will have a fun experience and learn something about pollinators and their importance to the environment and humans.”

Last year, more than 5,400 people interacted with local non-profit organizations, listened to presentations from Monarch Watch Director Chip Taylor and participated in hands-on activities during the two-day festival.

“This year, in addition to highlighting pollinators, we will highlight the importance of biodiversity,” said Florida Museum educator coordinator Kendra Lanza-Kaduce. “We plan to showcase the work of various museum research collections to illustrate the importance of all life on earth.”

The museum will also host the third annual Pollinator Photography Contest, which promotes awareness of local pollinators. Photos must include at least one pollinator, (bat, bee, bird, butterfly or moth) and entries must be received between Aug. 22 and Sept. 9.

Winning photographs will appear in The Gainesville Sun and on the ButterflyFest website, and will be displayed in the museum.

The contest, which had more than 120 entries last year, is divided into two categories: adult, ages 18 and older; and junior, ages 10-17. First- and second-place winners in each category will receive cash prizes and third-place winners will receive Butterfly Rainforest tickets.

For more information about the ButterflyFest Pollinator Photography Contest, sponsored by The Gainesville Sun, visit www.flmnh.ufl.edu/butterflyfest/photo_contest.htm or call 352-273-2061.

Admission to the museum and ButterflyFest presentations and activities are free. There is an admission fee for the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit.

Food, merchandise and other vendors will also be at the festival and may charge for their services. The museum does not have an ATM machine, so visitors are encouraged to bring cash if they would like to purchase items from vendors. Rainforest admission may be paid via cash, credit card or debit card.

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Source: Jaret Daniels, 352-273-2022, jdaniels@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact: Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Museum of Natural History will unveil the newly renovated “Monarch Passage” that connects the Central Gallery to the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at 10 a.m. Saturday. (April 23)

The museum installed seven 46-inch high-definition TVs to display videos of the monarch butterfly’s overwintering colonies in Mexico.

“Visitors to the ‘Monarch Passage’ will be totally surrounded by millions of flying monarch butterflies, as well as scenes of massive clumps of hibernating butterflies turning green mountain fir trees orange,” said McGuire Center Director Thomas C. Emmel.

Most Monarchs, like birds, migrate south in the fall and return every spring. They are the only butterflies known to make a two-way migration. The videos will also display Monarchs drinking from mountain streams, climbing flower stems to feed, courting and mating.

“The experience of being completely immersed in countless numbers of Monarchs at these overwintering colonies has been compared by many visitors to Mexico as one of the greatest spiritual moments and uplifting events in their lives,” Emmel said. “Now, you can come very close to the reality of this moving wilderness experience by visiting the Florida Museum.”

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Source: Thomas Emmel, 352-273-2006, tcemmel@flmnh.ufl.edu
Writer: Leeann Bright
Media contact:  Paul Ramey, 352-273-2054, pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu