Stratford Butterfly Farm
Encyclopedia
Stratford-upon-Avon
Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. A leafy tropical environment is simulated inside large greenhouses. There are numerous free flying butterflies, a few free flying birds, a pool containing fish, and running water. There are also insects and spiders living in glass displays.
Design
Stratford Butterfly Farm consists of three main areas:Caterpillar Room which houses caterpillars, pupaes, eggs and specialist plants for butterfly breeding. This is the large walk through glasshouse.
Insect City houses the more exotic insects, such as beetles, praying mantis, stick insects and giant millipedes.
The insects are all behind glass and above your head is a glass confinement of leaf cutter ants. A section in insect city is called 'mini beast' and has snails and crabs.
Arachnoland houses over 15 species of spider from black widows to tarantulas. They also have the world's largest spider species, the Goliath birdeater
Goliath birdeater
The Goliath bird-eater Spider is an arachnid belonging to the tarantula group, Theraphosidae, and is considered to be the second largest spider in the world , and they may be the biggest by mass...
. Arachnoland also includes a collection of scorpions including Imperial Scorpions
Emperor scorpion
The emperor scorpion, Pandinus imperator, is a species of scorpion native to Africa. It is one of the largest scorpions in the world and lives for 5–8 years. Its body is black, but glows under ultraviolet light...
that glow in the dark. Once again these are all behind glass.
History
Stratford Butterfly Farm was opened by David BellamyDavid Bellamy
David James Bellamy OBE is a British author, broadcaster, environmental campaigner and botanist. He has lived in County Durham since 1960.-Career:...
in 1985 and it celebrated its 25th anniversary on 24 July 2010.
On 3 June 2002 part of a glass butterfly nursery that was used for breeding rare and exotic butterflies was destroyed in a fire. A firework from a jubilee firework display is thought to have landed in an empty plastic flower pot next to the greenhouse and started the fire. About 90 exotic butterflies were in the nursery at the time and the majority were saved; however, special exotic plants that were used for butterfly breeding were destroyed by the fire.