It's Butterfly Time! NHM's Pavilion of Wings 2010

 

 

                                                                NEWS

                Kristin Friedrich (213) 763-3532 kfriedri@nhm.org

                                                                       Lauren Clark (213) 763-3580 lclark@nhm.org

 

 

GROW WINGS THIS SPRING!

 

Hundreds of Butterflies Flutter into Los Angeles When Pavilion of Wings Re-Opens at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

 

April 11 – September 6, 2010

 

LOS ANGELES—Spring is here, and so is the Pavilion of Wings. Come face to face with the majestic colors and brilliant patterns of more than 40 species of butterflies, and more super-sized moths in the twelfth-annual Pavilion of Wings at the Natural History Museum, April 11 through September 6.

 

Fluttering through the newly re-landscaped Pavilion on the Museum’s South Lawn will be hundreds of free-flying butterflies and moths. More than half are native to California; all are native to the U.S. Giant Swallowtails, American Painted Ladies, California Dogfaces and more will fill the air around visitors, or alight delicately on their arms.

 

Could monarch butterfly migration originally have been result of human rural and urban development throughout North and Central America? Visitors can learn all about monarch migration, and also all about the lifecycles, defense mechanisms, and host plants of all of the butterflies from knowledgeable Museum educators, who use the fun and lively pavilion environment to teach young and old not just what we know, but how we know what we know. Here curiosity and wonder spark discovery.

Among the new additions this year are the tropical Small Postman butterfly, and more species of moths than ever before, including polyphemus moths, sphynx moths (also called Hawk Moth, because of its distinctive flight patterns), and the elaborately patterned Cynthia moth.

 

Take a moment on your visit to the Pavilion of Wings to enjoy the Museum's newly installed demonstration garden and bird feeders just outside the Pavilion, on the Museum's South Lawn.

 

24^th Annual Bug Fair

In further celebration of butterflies and all things fluttery and multi-legged, the Museum will also host the 24th annual Bug Fair on May 15 and 16, 2010. The biggest bug festival in North America, the Fair will give visitors an opportunity to buy bugs and bug merchandise from more than 60 vendors, view outstanding collections, and learn more about the teeming world of arthropods and arachnids, with help from the Museum’s resident “Bug Guy,” entomologist Brent Karner, Entomology Curator Dr. Brian Brown, and many of the Museum's outstanding scientists.

 

NHM Pavilion of Wings Special Ticketing & Info

Special ticketed admission applies to the Pavilion of Wings: Adults $3; Students and seniors $2; Children 5-12 $1; Museum members and children under 5 are FREE. Regular Museum admission is separate and as follows: Adults $9; Students, seniors and Youths (13-17) $6.50; Children (5-12) $2. Museum members and children under 5, FREE.

 

About the Natural History Museum

The Museum was the first dedicated museum building in Los Angeles, opening its doors in 1913. It has amassed one of the world’s most extensive and valuable collections of natural and cultural history — with more than 35 million objects, some as old as 4.5 billion years. The Natural History Family of Museums includes the NHM, the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits (Hancock Park/Mid-Wilshire), and the William S. Hart Park and Museum (Newhall, California). The Family of Museums serves more than one million families and visitors annually, and is a national leader in research, exhibitions and education.

 

NHM Next

Last year’s completed renovation of the Beaux-Arts 1913 Building, the original component of the NHM, has set the stage for the rollout of a series of new exhibits leading up to the Museum’s centennial in 2013: Age of Mammals and the Haaga Family Rotunda galleries open in July 2010; Dinosaur Mysteries in Summer 2011; and Under the Sun; an exhibition focusing on the Southern California environmental history, in Winter 2012.

 

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Lauren Clark

Marketing & Communications

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

900 Exposition Blvd., Los Angeles CA 90007

 

tel. 213.763.3580

fax. 213.743.4843

e. lclark@nhm.org