April 8, 2009

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  Last weekend I went to Washington DC to see the cherry blossom.  I spent Saturday at the cherry blossom festival and will post pictures of the festival later.  Sunday I came back to the area but shy away from the festival to visit museums.  Knowing I had very little time I had planned to visit the Freer Gallery of Art which is a very small museum that displayed Asian Art.  I have been looking for Vietnamese art especially ceramics.  But before I could get to Freer Museum my relative saw a standing display of the 3-D movie Deep Ocean outside the Smithsoninan National Museum of Natural History and suggested we should see the movie.  I went inside and the movie would be shown an hour later so we looked around.  As I looked at all the gigantic sharks and octupus and thought I never could get to see what I had planned some other relatives came in suggested that the group should see National Air and Space Museum.  I was free to roam around and I saw inside the Natural History Museum there was a display of orchids and butterflies. 

  The display of butterflies is a live show which cost me 6 dollars while the all the museums in Washington DC is free admission.  In the middle of the floor is a large green house.  Inside the green house are many kinds of flowers which are blooming and numerous live butterflies of various species.  Inside the green house visitors experience feeling of summer because moisture was pumped into the green house, intensive lighting to create artificial sunlight, and after half an hour I felt choked with the heat and moisture although I would like to stay a little longer to take a few more pictures.  Most of the pictures are not very clear because I could not follow these butterfies.  They fluttered and when they perched they often folded their wings.

  Butteflies have very short life.  After they become butterflies they can live only 2 weeks and if their wings are damaged they cannot regenerate themselves.  They are attracted to nectar but some of them need sodium therefore they land on people following the sweat.

  Visitors are asked to shake loose their sweaters and handbags to avoid butterflies being trapped inside.  One butterfly landed on my sweater and I thought I did not wear perfume or lotion so the butterfly must be attracted to my sweat. 
  
  

  This blue butterfly belongs to the genus Morpho one of the most beautiful butterfly species.  This kind can be found from Mexico to northern of Argentina and southern of Brazil.  The glittering bright blue of the males are not a result of pigmentation but of diffraction and light interference.  Morpho specimens are often used for making pictures and jewellery and in the past were hunted for that purpose. 

  

  Monarch (Danaus plexippus) also known as milkweed butterfly is famous for long distance migration.  They return to South America such as Mexico in August and travel to North America in the spring.  They tend to return to the exact location after many generation. 

  

  Gaudy commodore (Precis octavia, Nymphalidae).  In the wet season they look brighter than in the dry season.
  
  
  
  
  
  

   

  • 10:06 am
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