When you work with what you love it really isn't a job but a joy with a constant sense of curiosity to know more and do things better or different. I love libraries and that means all kinds of libraries: music libraries with music scores, medical libraries with rare body parts, shops with purses....they should really be considered "shopping" libraries. The isles of purses are cataloged by color, author (designer), and size! Anyway, when I found out there was a butterfly library across from our hotel I hurried over.
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Did you know that there are 158 types of butterflies in Florida?
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I had no idea Florida had so many types of butterflies. Apparently, butterflies migrate just like salmon to their birth ground. I think that is a theme that we humans have with the place we were born. In someway, even if we are far from it, it gives us a sense of home. The butterflies are no different. In this butterfly library they have labs where they receive butterfly larvae from all over the world. They keep the larvae till they hatch and then release the butterflies into the wild. I'm not sure how this would affect the species of butterfly already existing in Florida. Often is the case that a new species is introduced to a foreign land and totally destroys another species, infects animals and humans, etc. Look at the damage Smallpox, typus fever and cholera carried with the Spanish conquistadors had on Native Indians in Central and South America. These illnesses are responsible for the death of 18 millions of Indians and ultimately the illness itself was the greatest weapon Spain had to "conquer" the Americas. The Spanish saw the death of 80-90% of the native people as God's way to grant them the land. I just hope there are no conquistador butterflies in the mix which will bring death and destruction to millions.
I enjoyed the butterfly library, despite my anxious concerns of parasitic butterflies. It is really impossible not to be happy among thousands of butterflies.
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| larvae from Brasil |
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| all waiting to hatch |
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| the library stacks |
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| One collection of butterflies |
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| some lab samples |
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