Learn more about how I acquire our Lepidoptera friends:
Q: Where do the butterflies come from?
A: I purchase my specimens papered and dehydrated from a local family-owned business based out of Midvale, UT. The proprietors of this shop have developed personal relationships with butterfly farmers all over the world. Many of these farmers are indigenous landowners, and the practice of butterfly farming provides financial incentive to maintain the land in its original condition¹. Alternative practices include clear-cutting forests and mono-crop farming, both of which are extremely detrimental to the environment²,³. By supporting the butterfly farming industry, you are also contributing to the preservation of rainforests and soil integrity across the globe!
So, how does it work? A butterfly's lifecycle exists in 4 stages: egg, larva (caterpillar), pupa (chrysallis), and butterfly. On average, the egg stage lasts 3-7 days, the larva stage lasts 2-5 weeks in which they consume as much as they possibly can for the coming transformation, the pupa/chrysalis stage lasts 1-2 weeks in which the caterpillar completely liquefies into a mass of goo and wings, emerging into the final butterfly stage which lasts 2-3 weeks with the sole purpose of reproduction⁴. Butterfly farmers are adept at identifying individual species, tracking their breeding cycles, and fostering the development of each generation of eggs. They provide consistent breeding grounds ensuring the proliferation of these species and contributing to their long-term conservation. After breeding and laying eggs, most butterflies have only a few days left to live in which their wings shred and they decline rapidly. Butterfly farmers harvest adult specimens shortly after eggs are laid but before the desiccation process has begun to provide high-quality, life-like specimens to collectors and artists like you and me.
I understand it may be unsettling to see these specimens preserved like this and it may be easy to jump to conclusions that their lives were exploited to create this art. I want to assure you that this is not the case, each of these specimens led full lives in their native habitats and contributed to the gene pool before passing peacefully into my hands. I spend time with every specimen extending gratitude for their lives and their beauty, and I treat each one with the utmost respect. These butterflies were celebrated by the farmers who looked after them from the day they were laid as eggs, they were admired through their life cycle, and honored in their passing. I hold it as a very dear responsibility to turn each specimen that passes through my hands into a piece worthy of their lives and their beauty. I trust they will mean as much to you as they do to me.
2. https://www.sierraclub.org/grassroots-network/stop-clearcutting-ca/about-clearcutting
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8838759/
4. https://www.joyfulbutterfly.com/life-cycle-of-a-butterfly/