This season, as Gator fans gear up for football games by priding themselves in their orange-and-blue apparel, the lepidopterists at the Florida Museum of Natural History plan on showing pride unlike anywhere else.
The staff at the Florida Museum will be releasing an influx of butterfly species that are either all orange or all blue this fall in the Butterfly Rainforest, celebrating the opening of Gator football season.
UF students receive free admission to the Butterfly Rainforest with a valid Gator 1 Card through Sept. 30, according to the Florida Museum website. Daily releases of butterflies are at 2 p.m.
About every six weeks, the museum follows different themes for its exhibits. This is the second time the museum has hosted the orange-and-blue theme for the Butterfly Rainforest for football season.
However, despite the massive shipment of orange-and-blue butterflies, Ryan Fessenden, the assistant manager of Butterfly Rainforest operations, notes that none of the butterflies for this theme are native Florida species.
“The only native Florida species that might fit the criterion would be the atala,” Fessenden said. He said it is endangered and is being conserved in the museum’s Lepidoptera laboratory. But visitors are still able to view the atala through the laboratory window as part of the theme.
The museum is waiting for more shipments of the orange-and-blue butterflies, and the staff is unsure when the shipments will be arriving.
Despite the wait, visitor services staff member Josh Brewer said there are currently orange-and-blue butterflies in the Butterfly Rainforest.
“The most orange-and-blue one that we have is the Indian Leafwing,” Brewer said. “Also…the Olivewing will have kind of a blue slash on either wing, and underneath, it will have some orange spots.”
Museum staff predicts that as Gator football season progresses, the number of Gator football fans visiting the Butterfly Rainforest will increase.
Brewer said putting orange-and-blue flowers in the forest would add to the theme.
“You can get quite a different variety of flowering plants, so orange-and-blue would definitely be possible right now,” he said.
Fessenden also said visitors can see the orange-and-blue butterflies before and after a football game and hints that the theme is aimed towards families visiting Gainesville.
“Who doesn’t love butterflies?” Fessenden said. “And what’s better than an orange-and-blue butterfly?”
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/4/2013 under the headline "Orange and blue fly high at Florida Museum’s rainforest"
