They feel with their feelers, taste with their feet and deceive with colors. The Fata Morgana greenhouse in the botanical garden in Prague’s Troja has come to life in recent weeks not only with the colors of plant flowers, but also with butterflies flying everywhere. Visitors can see dozens of species of exotic butterflies, including one of the largest in the world, at an exhibition held there until the end of this weekend.
A group of visitors are watching with interest a bright blue butterfly that has just settled on the feeder and is sitting in a bowl of fermented banana. He tastes, however, not with his tongue, but with his hind legs, that’s where butterflies have taste receptors. After all, even its coloring is not what it may seem – in fact, the butterfly’s wings are brown and beige in color. The brilliant blue hue causes light to refract on their surface.
Children already learn that butterflies should not be touched, but it is less well known that their body, including their wings, is not covered with powder, but with miniature scales. They help them regulate their body temperature, so they wouldn’t last long without them.
More than 70,000 visitors have visited the exhibition since the beginning of April. More than five thousand butterfly chrysalises from the butterfly farm in Stratford-upon-Avon in England gradually arrived in Prague.
Take a look in the photo gallery at their development from an egg to a caterpillar, which dissolves into slime inside the chrysalis, to a colorful butterfly, intimidating its surroundings with owl eyes or a snake’s head on its wings.
