Trying Out New Wings

I live practically next to the Natural History Museum and there is an oddly cone shaped glass building attached that is covered in what looks like vines from the inside. After many moons walking past the thing, I learned it's a butterfly pavilion. Having never seen it before, I decided to visit when a girlfriend of mine was in town with her two kids.

There we saw a display area where we could observe

I should be using this post and the questions it brings up to research the answers and bring them to you. You'd think that I'd have the answers from whatever the plaques said at the museum, though I don't actually remember many of those. In case you don't check in on my other blog A New Yorker in Houston, you might not know that I've been kind of buried under the completion of something and have barely managed to get something up here. Posting Lite I could call it.

For now I will throw my questions out there, and in a few weeks when I have a life again, maybe they can be answered. Or maybe some of you can help. Here they are:

How do they know when to cocoon? And how is that made...they must make it themselves around them. And what is this incredible gold substance? They look like beads from an egyptian necklace.


And I was captivated by the shiny milky gorgeous emerald green ones. They remind me of those dished Martha Stewart has, lol. The row above them look like leaved and wilted leaves above those. I want to know what they all are.


How do those magnificent wings grow in such a small space? How long does it take? Does this happen only once a year, at the same time of year? And how long do butterflies live?


There were several types of butterflies that crawled from the cocoons above. I caught a little video of some of them trying out their wings. How gorgeous are the cobalt blue ones?


At some point, I imagine shortly thereafter, these are released into the pavilion where they literally dance in the air and flit from bowls of fruit to fragrant flowers to many a shiny green leaf. A pretty nice life, however long it is.

So if you know the answer or even a guess to any of these questions, or have some questions of your own, please let me know in the comments!