Butterflies and Moths Exhibit
Our butterflies and moths were collected in the 1930’s by A.W. Nations of Donna, Texas. The wide-spread application of DDT (insecticide) in the 1950’s lead to the extermination of many species and countless subspecies. The larvae of the butterflies were considered harmful to agriculture and the caterpillars were poisoned.
Today, we have male and female mounts of many types of butterflies collected by Mr. Nations and mounted on cotton. Notice how many butterflies are mounted with the same species from a “top mount” and then a “bottom side mount” in our 47 cases of Texas butterflies. And we have a few cases of exotic species from around the world.
The subspecies resulted from the food sources available for different butterflies living in the different river valleys of Texas. Today we don’t encourage anyone to “collect” the living jewels which visit our yards and gardens; enjoy and study these specimens and then enjoy the living survivors we see across all of Franklin County.
