Tropical Butterfly House

Step into PacSci’s Tropical Butterfly House and experience a special world with hundreds of free flying butterflies and colorful, fragrant flowers. The Tropical Butterfly is included with General Admission to the Science Center.

New butterflies take flight each week, and each visit features a different mix of species. Take a peek into the emerging window to see butterflies in their chrysalis stage. You might even see a butterfly emerging from its cocoon! Read the Fresh Sheet report on the PacSci Blog to see what species will be fluttering around each week.

The Tropical Butterfly House also features interesting plants including the trees that give us coffee, cocoa and cinnamon. Some plants feed the butterflies with nectar-rich flowers, or give them resting spots when they take a break from flying. Others like the Voodoo Lily are just cool!

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Preparing For Your Visit

While butterflies are completely harmless to people, they are very delicate animals. Please do not touch any butterflies. Butterflies occasionally land on guests, so when leaving you are asked to help us check for any accidental hitchhikers.

The Tropical Butterfly House walkways are too narrow for strollers, but there is plenty of stroller parking nearby. Food is not allowed in the Butterfly House.

Here are some additional resources for your visit:

• Butterfly Identification Guide (En Español)
• Butterfly House Plant Identification Guide (En Español)
• Do some research before visiting with our Discussion Ideas & Activities
• Braille guides are available upon request
• An audio guide is available here

Sourcing Our Butterflies

PacSci purchases the butterflies in our exhibit as chrysalis from farmers who raise them in their countries of origin. These farms not only sustain butterfly species, but also the habitats that support a host of other organisms.

If you raised butterflies at home or for a class and are looking to responsibly find them a home, Pacific Science Center can accept them and will release them into the Tropical Butterfly House. Please contact our Animal Care team at butterflies@pacsci.org before bringing any butterflies to the Science Center. The Animal Care team will work with you to arrange a good release time and provide any additional information.