How to Spread and Mount a Butterfly – Video Tutorial Part II
HMNS entomologist Erin Mills walks you through how to mount and display a butterfly in this 4-part video tutorial. Part II: Prepping the Butterfly Check back next week for Part III!
How to Spread and Mount a Butterfly – Video Tutorial Part I
HMNS entomologist Erin Mills walks you through how to mount and display a butterfly in this 4-part video tutorial. Part I: Supplies Check back next week for Part II!
It Takes a Village ….A Milkweed Village
As the obligate host plants for monarch caterpillars, milkweeds are a staple in any butterfly habitat garden. However, milkweed is not just for monarchs! Many other insects call the genus Asclepias home, giving rise to the concept of a “milkweed village.” Milkweed plants produce bitter tasting toxins called cardiac glycocides, and insects that eat milkweeds […]
Tired from a long journey, faded monarchs seek homes for the next generation
My friends Bob and Bev photographed this very faded, tattered female monarch flying around the milkweed plants in their backyard near the Museum last week. The butterfly is a migrant from Mexico, looking for places to lay her eggs as a last hurrah before she dies. She must be very tired! Last fall, she flew […]
Monarchs want YOU to plant milkweed: Butterfly-friendly plants for sale at HMNS
The butterflies need your help! With urbanization, and a host of other factors, monarch butterflies are at risk of not finding places to lay their eggs. So why not help while improving the butterfly traffic through your garden with a butterfly-seducing plant from our biannual plant sale? Milkweed plants in the genus Asclepias are extremely […]
The Blue Morpho Blend, Part II: The coffee grind of hulling, roasting & cupping
In Part I, we talked about the Cockrell Butterfly Center’s Little Coffee Tree That Could, and how we grow, harvest, and dry coffee beans. But even after all this work, the beans are still not ready to consume. So let’s talk about how we get the dried (parchment) coffee to a state that can be enjoyed […]
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