The butterfly house at Horniman Gardens opened towards the end of 2017 and is the latest attraction in their Living Collection. The other things are the alpacas, jellyfish and bees in the Animal Walk, the
Aquarium and Nature Base.
A limited number of people are allowed in at one time. The butterfly house is rather small compared to others I have been to, but is full of tropical plants suitable for the butterflies. According to the info board, the butterflies come from the Americas and from Asia. None from Europe, Africa or Australasia.
There didn't seem to be many butterflies flying around, but there were a few posing on the leaves. I hope I have identified them correctly -
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| Chocolate pansy |
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| Hercales longwing |
It was very warm inside, 30.4 °C but I was surprised it was only 51% humidity
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| papaya |
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| Hercules longwing |
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| Chocolate pansy |
A plate of food for the butterflies
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| Large tree nymph |
There is a display case showing the metamorphosis stages of caterpillars, eggs & chrysalis.
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| Postman butterfly |
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| Owl butterfly, the largest butterfly that I saw |
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| Leopard lacewing |
This butterfly liked the purple phone case -
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| Zebra longwing (?) |
Before you leave you are asked to check yourself in 2 mirrors to make sure no butterflies go out with you. Entry tickets are quite expensive for such a small place and I think visits are limited to 15 minutes. Nevertheless it is a good attraction to Horniman.
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