New butterfly house at Brighton Nurseries is a hit

Metamorphosis: In this extraordinary photographic montage, Christina White traces the evolution of the Monarch butterfly from eggs to caterpillar to chysalis to the lovely, winged creature that graces our gardens. She painstakingly recorded this transition over several months and stitched the individual images together to form this picture. Christina is the Bermuda Sun’s Creative Director. *Photo by Christina White

Brighton Nurseries recently opened a butterfly house.  

“It’s drawing a lot of attention from the local community,” says Mandy Roberts-Simas, as she leads this reporter into the brightly-decorated structure. 

She and her husband Eddie Simas own Brighton Nurseries and they developed the idea from Mr Robin Marirea.

We came across Mr Marirea in the butterfly house, watching over the chrysalises and caterpillars as they evolved into the beautiful Monarch or the Bermuda Buckeye (Bermuda’s very own endemic butterfly).

Dramatic transformation

Mr Marirea helps monitor the progress of the butterflies, even going as far as attaching the caterpillars, or larvaes, to the netted ceiling of the shed, in order to encourage the ‘pupal stage’ — the most dramatic transformation of the butterfly’s life cycle — in which the caterpillar turns into a chrysalis.  

Informative posters describing this process and identifying the different species of butterflies line the beds of scented flowers and plants, which help to feed and attract the butterflies to reproduce. 

Mrs Robert-Simas put up these posters for visitors and students, who are coming to the butterfly house more frequently, to enjoy the dance of these insects: “ I studied as a teacher, so I have plenty of information inside the butterfly house to keep the students informed, including a more detailed book that I leave outside of the entrance.”  

The butterfly house is free to the public on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, but that’s not to say donations aren’t needed: “People are really enjoying coming here, but we need as many contributions as possible to keep it going,” Mrs Robert-Simas explained. 

Up close: Right, an inhabitant of the new butterfly house at Brighton Nurseries.  *Photo by Nicola Muirhead