The project that was undertaken in December for the Detroit Zoo is now complete. As mentioned earlier, a chart will be published for
circulation in the Butterfly Garden. The chart will include many of the photographs in this gallery. I started photographing in the
Butterfly Garden in June of 2006, and in December Ms. Laura Polombi, Associate Director of Invertebrates, asked me to
continue this work for the chart she was planning.
As of the present date, this gallery contains 48 species of butterflies and a total of 116 butterfly photographs. The most common
butterflies seen in the Butterfly Garden are the Common Blue Morpho, the Owl Butterfly, the Banded Purple Wing (Blue Wave),
the Tiger Longwing, and the Grecian Shoemaker based on 2005 data. Photographs of these species appear in this gallery.
Not all of the approximately 75 species that emerged in 2005 are in this gallery. I plan to continue visiting the Butterfly Garden from
time to time although it will be difficult finding any of the remaining species. Fortunately, the Butterfly Garden is a tropical
paradise, a photographer’s dream location in the winter time in our northern climate. There are also relatively few
visitors this time of the year because of the weather and the fact that schools are in session. A photographer
can sometimes have the Garden to himself.
Finally, I wish to thank many of the gallery guides for their helpfulness in spotting unusual butterflies for me and providing me
with information on their location. Above all, Ms. Palombi prepared numerous butterflies in the chrysalis room for
photographing and identification, and Mr. Michael Puppan provided additional identification assistance.
I would certainly welcome any public or private comments that you might have at the end of this gallery. They would be very useful to
me for future work in the Butterfly Garden. Thanks for visiting.
Jay Levin
January 23, 2007