Life Cycle of a Butterfly Shipment - an overview

On any given day, Pacific Science Center’s Tropical Butterfly House usually houses between 600 and 800 live butterflies, but the average adult butterfly usually lives for just a couple of weeks! So how do we keep our butterfly populations so plentiful?

Every week, we purchase approximately 500 new pupae from our various butterfly vendors. Each shipment contributes to a diverse and stable population of butterflies that fly freely throughout our exhibit. As a way of understanding the logistics of butterfly population control, Lead Animal Caretaker Brianna Todd, has outlined the typical “life cycle” of a butterfly shipment:
• Days 1 to 3: Boxes of pupae are shipped from butterfly farms around the world. Delivery usually takes a few days, as it must pass through USDA customs inspection. A few butterflies may have already eclosed, (emerged from their chrysalis) by the time we open the package.

• Days 3 to 6: The emerging window is full of new butterflies as pupae complete metamorphosis and adult butterflies emerge.


• Days 6 to 12: Most of the butterflies in the shipment have emerged by now and are happily flying in the butterfly house but the slower-developing species are eclosing at this time.
• Days 12 to 14: The entire shipment has been released and is flying in the butterfly house. The butterflies that emerged shortly after the shipment arrived are beginning to die off.

• Days 14 to 29: Most of the butterflies from the shipment end their life cycle. A few species have exceptionally long lives and may still be spotted.
• Days 30 plus: Most of the butterflies from a shipment have expired with a few exceptions.


Pacific Science Center will be closed to the public September 14 – 25 for maintenance. During that time, Life Sciences staff will thoroughly clean the Tropical Butterfly House. A major component of this year’s “Big Clean” is the complete replacement of the butterfly house netting for the first time in 5 years. This means that we have to take steps to drastically reduce the butterfly population beforehand and then be prepared to replenish our stock in time for the public reopening, September 26.

Follow along over the next few weeks as we track the progress of this year’s Big Clean.