Hi, I’m Shuki, and this is my feathered-friend Tuki. Today we’re going somewhere exotic, and you’re invited to come along! We’re going to the Penang Butterfly Farm in Malaysia, in Southeast Asia. Bet you’ve never been here before! Come join us as we push open the double doors and enter the beautiful world of butterflies.
Ooooh … We better take off our jackets. It’s warm! The temperature is always the same in here set at about 22–24° C with 70-80% humidity. Butterflies cannot fly if their body temperature is less than 86 degrees. Imagine how boring a butterfly farm would be if the butterflies weren’t flying!
Tuki: “When a butterfly doesn’t fly is it just called ‘butter’?”
Wait a second what are all these small Plexiglass cages for? I see there are thick green leaves inside this first one. If you’re squeamish around creepy-crawlies you might not want to look closer! Every leaf is covered with thick wiggling caterpillars! Some leaves have small white lumps attached to them too — caterpillar eggs. When the caterpillar comes out of the egg it will eat the leaf it’s on.
Butterflies pass through four major developmental stages in their lifetimes called metamorphosis — egg to caterpillar to pupa (chrysalis or cocoon) to butterfly — and we get to see each stage as they happen right here.
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