Behind The Scenes Tour of the Cockrell Butterfly Center Plus Greenhouses HMNS entomologists and horticulturists will take you behind the scenes of the containment room and rooftop greenhouses–areas not open to the public–where staff cares for the Museum’s caterpillars, butterflies, other insects, food plants for the butterflies. In addition to the behind-the-scenes zones, you will […]
For anyone looking for a fun way to spend their Independence Day holiday, here’s what’s happening this week at the Houston Museum of Natural Science! Behind The Scenes Tour Of Our Cockrell Butterfly Center Plus Greenhouses Go behind the scenes with Museum entomologists and horticulturists who care for the plants and animals in the three-story […]
By Jeff Cummins, Horticulturist at the Cockrell Butterfly Center in the Houston Museum of Natural Science The Cockrell Butterfly Center was graced (?) a couple of weeks ago by a very special event. One of our corpse flowers, Lou, bloomed for the very first time! Lou is an Amorphophallus peaeoniifolius, a smaller species […]
Every year on Valentine’s Day, we in the Cockrell Butterfly Center like to think about all our favorite insects and the methods they use to find mates. From special pheromones to elaborate mating rituals, every insect has a way to find a mate (or more often, multiple mates)! It’s the smell that counts […]
The Cockrell Butterfly Center at HMNS is one of the most unique locations in Houston. Among the over 1,500 butterfly species you spy as you wander through our enchanting rainforest conservatory, is the beautiful Yellow Tiger Longwing, Heliconius ismenius. This stunner of a specimen gets it’s name from—you guessed it—it’s beautiful striped markings, which are […]
Here’s what’s happening at HMNS this week! EVENING FILM SCREENING – “Amazon Adventure 3D” with Erin Mills, Director of Cockrell Butterfly Center Tuesday, June 14, 6:30 p.m. As a young man, Henry Bates risked his life for science in the 1850s. “Amazon Adventure 3D” tells the epic, true story of the explorer’s fascinating 11-year journey through […]
Have you seen a numbered butterfly in the Cockrell Butterfly Center today? We’re doing a longevity study to see how long the butterflies in our center are living. If you see a butterfly with a number on it, snap a picture and post it on Instagram with the tag #CBCStudy so that we can see it! […]
Editor’s Note: After four and a half years, Zac Stayton, Horticulturist for the Cockrell Butterfly Center, is leaving HMNS for a new job as a Project Manager for the grower Color Spot. I sat down with him this week to discuss his time at HMNS, his favorite projects and what he’ll be up to next. Vincent […]
For the next several paragraphs, we’ll be talking about a few very special flying creatures (and some others) that are called pollinators — to whom we owe huge thanks for providing much of the food we eat! Without these pollinators to carry their pollen from flower to flower, plants could not form fruits or seeds […]
The Atlas moth (Attacus atlas) is a large moth belonging to the Saturniidae family. Saturniids, familiarly called giant silk moths, include some of the largest species of Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). Two local species that may be familiar to readers are the polyphemus and luna moths. Atlas moths are considered the largest moths in the […]
