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 […]
Day: Saturday September 30, 2017 Time: 9am-noon *Location CHANGE*: Ground level. Outside of the HMNS main entrance by the Sun Dial Some people might not think that fall is an important time to add plants to your garden, but this couldn’t be further from the truth! Here in Houston, fall is a […]
Lecture – The Great Road Trip: New Stories in the Human Journey by John Kappelman The lure of what lies over the next horizon has always been a central part of our human quest. Dr. John Kappelman will present the latest research information on about our explorations–places, dates, and even genomic analysis–has helped to […]
BTS – Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum Gladiators locked in mortal combat for the entertainment of the crowds in Rome’s Colosseum. “Gladiators: Heroes of the Colosseum” takes us into the violent arena of the Colosseum and behind the scenes to the world of the gladiators. Theirs was a world of specialized training, discipline, regulation and […]
Wing It! GET TICKETS Every Tuesday @ 10:30 a.m., Memorial Day through August Come fly away into the world of butterflies this summer at the Cockrell Butterfly Center with Wing it! Introduce yourself to your favorite flutterers and watch the release of 100 to 200 new, greenhouse-raised butterflies into the enclosure. Get schooled on […]
Imagine a strange post-apocalyptic scenario in which you somehow became trapped in the Cockrell Butterfly Center alone, with no food or provisions. Pretty weird thing to imagine right? Well, it could happen! Many people come to the CBC to watch the graceful butterflies flit through the trees, but don’t actually realize that it is […]
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 […]
By Theresa Freiburger, Horticulturalist/Greenhouse Manager at the Cockrell Butterfly Center Mimicry, in the biological sense, is when an animal closely resembles another animal or plant. Mimicry happens in all shapes and colors throughout the animal kingdom. Some mimic the environment, like a leaf or a stick, while others have evolved to mimic other insects. What […]
School’s out for summer and now the age old question comes- what can I do with these kids all summer long?! Well, have no fear the Cockrell Butterfly Center is here! The Butterfly Center team has come up with a bunch of awesome activities that will have kids buzzing and parents rejoicing that their kids […]
How many of you readers collect something, whether coins, stamps, statues of elephants, vintage firearms, beanie babies (we’re dating ourselves!), shot glasses from places you’ve visited, etc.? Humans seem to have a predilection for collecting things. Some of these collections seem random, or nostalgic, or even silly – but in the case of museums, a […]
