A child watches a butterfly at the exhibition. [Photo/People.com.cn]

Children learn about butterflies at the exhibition. [Photo/People.com.cn]

Tianjin's Museum of Natural History opened an exhibition of butterflies on September 4. Residents can watch a chrysalis turn into a butterfly and walk into the butterfly presentation space, which has more than 800 butterflies and will soon expand to include 2,000 to 2,500 butterflies.

Xia Tianyu, director of the butterfly exhibition park said, “The exhibition park is not only a place to display the butterflies, but also a complete ecological space through natural system monitoring.”

It took nearly two years to establish the ecological space, which uses fully automatic facilities to control the temperature and humidity and provide food and spaces for water intake, predation, and incubation. The area also has special lighting for butterfly’s needs.

The butterflies in the exhibition park are from North China. Other species are under incubation and will be on display next week. Xia said that the butterflies are fragile, so the number of visitors is limited. Visitors should make appointments by phone before visiting the exhibition park. A caterpillar has to pupate five times to become a butterfly. The entire process from chrysalis to butterfly takes one to two months, and a butterfly only has a life of six days. Visitors should take care not to touch the wings of the butterflies. Once the wings break, the butterflies die.