The Missoula Butterfly House in Missoula, Montana, has a tropical greenhouse filled with butterflies from around the world. Butterflies require warm and humid conditions and therefore, the greenhouse mimics these conditions. The Butterfly House provides lockers where visitors leave items not allowed in the greenhouse and since Montana is not warm and humid visitors may also leave their warm Montana jackets.
Some quick facts about butterflies: (1) adult butterflies and moths mate and lay eggs; (2) the eggs hatch into caterpillars that become eating and growing machines that will grow 100 times their original size during this stage; (3) when fully grown, a caterpillar becomes pupa, a period of transformation that can last from a few week to up to two years; (4) and finally an adult butterfly or moth emerges. Body fluid is pumped into its veins to expand its wings. Drying the wings to enable it to fly may take anywhere from 10 minutes to a few hours. The life cycle of the adult butterfly is anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks.