Butterfly exhibit spreads mighty wings

Media Credit: CHIP CLARK / SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTE TAKING FLIGHT- A new exhibit at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History showcases how plants and butterflies co-evolved. New species will be introduced throughout the show's run to show the evolution process live. Children revel in the mystique of butterflies and plants, but it isn't free; tickets cost $6 unless you go Tuesdays when admission is free.

Regular visitors to the National Museum of Natural History would not have been surprised at the large crowds of small children last Saturday. On this particular day, however, crowds piled not into reliable favorites like the prehistoric gallery or the photography exhibit, but into a new permanent two-part exhibit: "Butterflies and Plants: Partners in Evolution," which opened Friday.

The new exhibit, housed on the second floor across from the gem and mineral collection, is divided into two sections: one a set of specimen displays and placards designed to show how insects and other animals co-evolved with plants, the other a heated pavilion filled with live butterflies.

The live butterflies are the obvious draw, and the specimen displays seem designed largely as a distraction for people waiting for entrance to the butterfly pavilion. The minimal presence of informational displays turns the exhibit into little more than a hallway to the entrance to the butterfly pavilion. However, many children seemed enthralled by colorful displays depicting the stages of a butterfly's life and read the descriptions of the specimens with interest.

For those no longer in elementary school, however, this section is much less stimulating. Placards saying things like "the caterpillars eat and eat and eat" and displays assuming no pre-existing knowledge of the process of evolution seem to show that this exhibit is intended for a younger crowd. To that end, the exhibit fulfills its purpose-younger children squealed in delight at the sight of preserved bats and learned, with the help of simplistic art and description accompanying preserved animals, about the idea of co-evolution.

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