Butterfly Conservatory at Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium to reopen Saturday
Saturday, Oct. 4, at 11 a.m., Michael Orchin from the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will cut the red ribbon, and officially open the door of the conservatory for visitors. CNCP board members, staff, volunteers and CCFW members and staff from Rotary Park in Cape Coral plan to attend.
This gift to the residents of Southwest Florida was made possible by monetary donations from the Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife and Orchin, as well as staff experience, knowledge and butterfly caterpillars and chrysalis’ from Rotary Park in Cape Coral.
The renovated butterfly house will house mostly Florida native plants with only a few exceptions and will include nectar producers for adult butterflies and larval host plants for the caterpillars. The focus will be on conservation of butterflies as important pollinators and conserving butterfly populations in decline.
Butterflies you can expect to see (and who are already finding the larval host plants) are: monarch, queen, zebra longwing (Florida state butterfly), sulphurs (cloudless, orange barred), polydamus or gold rimmed swallowtails, eastern black swallowtails, cassius and ceraunus blues.
To celebrate, the Calusa Nature Center & Planetarium will offer BOGO, buy one admission at regular price, get one of equal or lessor value free, all day Oct. 4.
For additional information, contact CNCP Director Mary Rawl at mrawl@calusanature.org or call 239-275-3435