Delicate rainbows of color dance through the air as you stroll through “Flutter Zone,” a magical butterfly exhibit opening for the summer on Sat., May 28 at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk.
“Flutter Zone” will offer close encounters with dozens of varieties of exotic tropical butterflies daily through Sept. 5 (Labor Day) on the Aquarium’s riverfront courtyard.
Some of the butterflies may even land on you!
Plus, double your butterfly fun by choosing “Flight of the Butterflies” as the IMAX® movie included with your Maritime Aquarium admission. “Flight of the Butterflies” is among the classic IMAX movies playing daily on the six-story screen from May 27 through Labor Day.
“Everyone loves butterflies, and ‘Flutter Zone’ gives our guests the opportunity to get close to species of beautiful brilliant tropical butterflies that they’ll never see in our local environment,” said Dave Sigworth, the Aquarium’s publicist. “Plus, because it’s getting rarer to even see some of our indigenous butterfly species in Connecticut, a ‘pollinators’ garden’ adjacent to ‘Flutter Zone’ informs Aquarium guests about flowering native plants that they can add to their gardens to help butterflies, bees, hummingbirds and other creatures.”
At a “Flutter Zone” activity station, guests can purchase a milkweed starter kit ($1) to plant when they return home. Monarch butterflies lay their eggs exclusively on milkweed, and their caterpillars feed exclusively on the plant. Recently, however, monarch populations across North America have declined as property owners cut milkweed or spray it with pesticides.
Guests at the activity station also can personalize a souvenir butterfly headband, and explore the differences between butterflies and moths.
In addition, “Flutter Zone” spotlights the amazing life cycle of butterflies in a special display of the live chrysalises whose metamorphoses will keep the exhibit stocked with fluttering butterflies throughout the summer. Be sure to look to see who might be emerging!