Sensational Butterflies at the Natural History Museum Part 2

If you've read Part 1 you will notice that all but one of the pictures from Sensational Butterflies are, as you'd expect, of the butterflies but you can see their full life cycle within the exhibition.

If you looked closely on the vegetation throughout the display you could see caterpillars happily munching on the leaves. 

Cocoons were then collected up and placed in a hatchery were you could see row up row of cocoons waiting to hatch 

 These ones looked truly alien but I swear there are butterflies in there

 and you could also watch some emerging into the light 

When they first emerge their wings are scrunched up and it takes a few hours for their wings to fill out 

  It's an incredible process watching them inflate

  and wait to dry out  

 though some did seem to struggle with the process. This poor thing looked as if it was struggling with it's new found wings. It must be a shock to the system to go to sleep as one thing then wake up with a completely different body!

 Apologies for the sudden image switch but some how they work better as portrait.

 So there we have it. If you're in London it's well worth the £6 entry fee and is guaranteed to awake the inner wonder in anyone. It's open until 11th September so there is plenty of time to catch it. My recommendation is to go during the week and arrive at 10am before the hoards arrive.