Butterfly Paradise - Tropical Rainforest in the Arizona Desert (Photo)

Butterfly Paradise - Tropical Rainforest in the Arizona Desert (Photo) (Contributed by Lin Xin) Last weekend our family and friends came to a place in Scottsdale...

(Contributed by Lin Xin) Last weekend our family and our friends came to a place in Scottsdale called "Butterfly Paradise" Butterfly Wonderland is a tropical rain forest in the desert, with colorful butterflies flying all over the sky. They are not "immigrants", many of them are Arizona natives. In addition to thinking of cacti and red canyons, we also saw the vivid side of Arizona. The lush green plants and colorful butterflies flying all over the sky brought coolness to the hot Arizona. The children were so happy when they arrived at the destination that they rushed into the butterfly transformation exhibition area. There are staff here who introduce us to the common knowledge of butterflies. The children immediately calm down and listen to the story of the growth of butterflies. Arizona is home to 334 species of butterflies, ranking second in the nation after Texas. This is the largest butterfly exhibition area in the United States, with nearly 800 different species of butterflies from North and South America, Africa, and Asia. The official national butterfly in 2001, Papilio multicaudata, comes from Arizona. The larval area of ​​the "Twin-tailed Swallowtail Butterfly" is displayed in front of us. The pupa of the Papilion butterfly is light green, with four small yellow dots near the head and two yellow eyespots centered on blue. When it turns into a caterpillar, it has black and yellow bands around its neck and several rows of small blue dots on its body. They feed daily on shrub leaves. Just when we were looking at these specimens carefully, a sudden crisp "crackling" sound caught the audience's attention, and a butterfly emerged from its cocoon! It’s amazing, these are not specimens, they are hatching butterflies. After watching the butterfly's transformation process, we were taken to a 3D cinema. Wearing glasses, we are immersed in the scene. The yellow butterflies are like a warm scarf, flying gracefully around us. A 15-minute short film allows us to understand the entire process of butterflies migrating from north to south and reproducing. Some people say, "A butterfly that flies across the sea will always break its wings. A butterfly cannot fly across the sea because it is too weak." This is wrong. Butterflies are very strong, or have perseverance beyond life. It will use the life of three generations of butterflies to fulfill its migration wish. Walking into the tropical rainforest area, we are really with these life elves, right next to us, within reach, it is so tempting. Before entering the area, the management staff told us how to live peacefully with butterflies and asked everyone to slow down. Some butterflies will stop on the ground. We cannot catch or touch the butterflies with our hands. We must let them fly freely. The dense woods, humid air, and colorful butterflies completely made us forget the heat of Arizona. In order to let the children observe butterflies carefully, we organized a competition to see who can find the "Twin-tailed Swallowtail" first today? The prize is any gift from the gift shop here. Now the children were very energetic and compared the pictures one by one carefully.

Children and Butterflies

Suddenly, my son pulled me hard with his hand. Following the direction of his finger, I saw my friend's daughter "Meimei", with a golden butterfly on the pink hairpin on her head. The butterfly must have mistaken that brightly colored hairpin for a flower. We quickly signaled Meimei to squat down and took out our cell phones to take a photo of this touching moment, but as soon as we took out our cell phones, the golden butterfly flew away. The son was so disappointed, but he still followed the golden butterfly with his eyes. Meimei and her parents recognized many types of butterflies, but they never saw the "Twin-tailed Swallowtail". My son followed the golden butterfly and seemed to have completely forgotten about the "double-tailed swallowtail butterfly". Just when we were completely unable to do anything with him, he came to me very proudly and said, "Mom, follow me!" He pointed at the golden butterfly and said, "Look down!" There was really a butterfly about 3 inches below the golden butterfly, with yellow wings and black lines on the edge. There were four stripes on each wing, the inner one was the longest and the outer one was the shortest. The most beautiful thing is the blue pattern on the tail of the wings. This is the "Twin-tailed Swallowtail" we are looking for. It is indeed the national butterfly. Every time it flaps its wings, the yellow and blue colors are dazzling.

>Twin-tailed Swallowtail

The son received a huge butterfly specimen as his gift. Our family decided to come back again, this new butterfly paradise made us acquainted!