Tag Archives: Malachite butterfly

The final day

Posted on by
2

A gem of a place closed its doors Friday, July 28 with a great deal of sadness. Butterfly Estates, located in Downtown Fort Myers, became a destination for my daughter and I, as well as our good friend, and my mom. The first time I visited this butterfly conservatory, which is full of Florida native butterfly species, was in 2015 while I was pregnant with my daughter. The story fell into my lap for the publication I still write for today. I went and took photographs, and well, was in awe of the beauty fluttering about.

Before our daughter was born, her momma was already hooked on butterflies. Before my daughter was born the significance of the butterfly was born, the wonderful meaning they represent was given to us. Unfortunately that meaning drove home a little more after my grandfather, the man who constantly reminded all of us of the importance of family, passed away.

“Butterflies appear when angels are near.” I believe in this with all of my heart.

The beautiful journey since then was creating a butterfly garden with my daughter that continues to grow in size and species we attract. My favorite part is knowing I am giving my daughter an education about nature, which she truly enjoys.

After I read “It is with great sadness that we close our doors tomorrow 7/28/23 at 2pm.
We want to thank our customers for their support over the years.
Butterflies & Staff will miss you.” I knew my daughter and I had to make one last final trip to the Butterfly Estates and witness the last release, walk the conservatory one last time. It was an emotional journey through the conservatory. Not only did I capture many moments with my camera, I also held many in my heart as we took one last stroll around the grounds.

The Butterfly Estates volunteers always taught us a great deal of information when we went for a visit. We took home many eggs that we raised in our garden, as well as new plants that attracted new species to the garden.

Every time we visit it seems a new butterfly captures our attention. This time it was the white peacock. It was everywhere. The best part is we took home five caterpillars and a chrysalis, as they have to rehome all the caterpillars and butterflies inside the magnificent enclosure. So a piece of Butterfly Estates is now in our butterfly house waiting to go through its lifecycle.

“Today our regular butterfly release takes place at 10:30 am. Once we close the butterflies inside will be caught and re-homed. This will take awhile. The outpouring from the community has been overwhelming. THANK YOU,” another post from Butterfly Estates on their Facebook page.

malachite butterfly

gulf fritillary
zebra longwing butterfly

The highlight again

Posted on by
Reply

Last time we visited The Butterfly Estates, a 3,600 square foot glass conservatory in Downtown Fort Myers, the malachite butterfly left us in awe. Yesterday when my daughter and I visited, this beauty tugged at our heart strings again. I was taking a photograph of a malachite butterfly when my daughter began saying “look mom.” A malachite butterfly landed on her hand. The pure joy that spread across her face was priceless.

I know I have said this before, but there is something truly special about this lighter than a feather insect resting on your hand. They were resting everywhere yesterday at the conservatory, making it quite easy to capture their beauty with my camera.

It’s the dark brown and green splashes of color that truly make this a stunning butterfly and their wingspan that can range from 7.1 to 8.4 cm.

As I wrote before, the Malachite, Siproea stelenes, is named after the semi-precious green gemstone.

Eye catching

Posted on by
2

The malachite butterfly absolutely stole the show today while visiting the Butterfly Estates in the Downtown Fort Myers River District. My friend and I were in complete awe and could not get enough of this graceful flyer with the stunning green coloring.

This is the one that my friend and I continue to talk about hours later. The one that has left us researching the host plant, so we can add it to our garden. That’s part of the great fun of creating a butterfly garden, at least for me, seeing how many species you can attract to your space. How many you can invite in, so you can admire their beauty and watch their life cycle. I believe we are up to 10 different species!

I only took 67 photos of this beauty.

According to the University of Florida, the Malachite, Siproeta stelenes, is named after the semi-precious green gemstone. Although the number of this butterfly has declined, they have been found in Lee County, an area of Southwest Florida, among a few other counties in Florida.

The eggs are green and the caterpillars are black with red markings and are horned and spiny. Its host plant is the green shrimp plant, which is also called Browne’s Blechum. The native wildflower choice, according to the University of Florida, is the Carolina wild petunia.