All about Butterfly Farming: The Market for Live, Captive Bred Butterflies

The rearing of butterflies and moths is not a new commercial activity. The Chinese silk industry, based on rearing a moth of the family Saturnidae, has been in existence for thousands of years. The breeding of butterflies for public viewing in butterfly gardens has been a serious commercial activity only since 1977.

Interest in the lepidoptera became a serious vocation for many people in the West during the Victorian era, roughly 1860-1910. At that time members of the English aristocracy, endowed with wealth and leisure derived from the United Kingdom’s flourishing global empire, collected, identified and catalogued lepidoptera from all over the world. At one point Lord Rothschild employed over 400 explorers and colonists the world over collecting butterflies on his behalf. Lord Rothschild's resulting collection of butterflies, accumulated over a lifetime, composed the single largest personal collection of butterflies ever.

Since the lepidopterists' heyday during the Victorian era, butterflies have been the subject of great interest for thousands of biologists and amateur enthusiasts. Butterflies have been discussed in countless research projects ranging from genetics to population dynamics. Butterfly collecting has always been a popular hobby. Some collectors are serious about their pastime, properly identifying and preserving the specimens they have caught themselves. More casual collectors can fall into two groups. There are those that simply capture and mount whatever passes through their neighborhood for their own enjoyment and satisfaction. Others shop from the glossy picture catalogs provided by deadstock dealers. Such casual collectors are often disparagingly likened to stamp collectors, wantonly collecting butterflies to provide an attractive collage or complete a set of a particular family or genus.

Not surprisingly there are hobbyists, particularly in Great Britain, who rear butterflies from around the world in their backyards. They enjoy breeding what for them is a new species of Malaysian Papilio, watching a Morpho emerge from its chrysalis while eating their breakfast cereal, or acquiring a perfect specimen for their collection of mounted butterflies. Through clubs such as The Entomological Livestock Group, these people who number only about 2,500 in the United Kingdom, buy, sell and trade their prized commodities acquired from a handful of part time suppliers from southeast Asia. It was through the informal and low key marketing channels of this small group that allowed for the creation of today’s thriving butterfly exhibit industry.

In 1977 a man living on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel was concerned about the sagging tourist industry. Though Guernsey has always been a popular destination for the British tourists, there was little they could do during inclement weather other than sit in their hotels. At the same time the tomato industry on Guernsey had become bankrupt and consequently acres of idle green houses covered the countryside.

It was this individual’s idea to acquire a vacant greenhouse and fill it with tropical plants to recreate the essence of a tropical jungle. To add interest, color and movement, he thought to import some live butterflies acquired from Asia through a member of the hobbyist’s association previously mentioned. The resulting enclosure, complete with waterfall and meandering brook was publicized as a butterfly exhibition and opened to the public. Needless to say, the project was an enormous gamble. Not only was there no notion of how the public would respond, but there were a lot of technical unknowns. No one had ever shown live tropical butterflies to the public. How should a butterfly exhibit be arranged? Which plants should be acquired and from where? What would the ideal temperature and humidity setting be? Perhaps one of the most serious questions was how one goes about acquiring live butterflies. In 1977 there were no professional butterfly farmers in the tropics. There were only amateur hobbyists who were rearing and selling a few dozen butterflies at a time. The challenge of acquiring a thousand healthy, live tropical butterflies was a daunting one indeed.

To many people’s amazement, and in spite of all the initial problems, this man’s butterfly exhibit was a commercial success. In fact, as other exhibits were established in Guernsey’s wake, the butterfly exhibit concept quickly acquired a favorable reputation in the venture capital circles. They were seen as businesses that could produce a return within a relatively short period of time. From about 1980 until 1988 the live butterfly exhibit industry exploded in the United Kingdom. A dozen or more new butterfly exhibits were established every year. Many were stand-alone butterfly exhibits that had little else to offer the public. Other exhibits were part of wealthy estates while still others might have been an addendum to a separate business like a garden center, an appendage to attract traffic.

Typical of a fast-growing novel industry, the butterfly exhibits attracted a broad range of entrants. In the absence of industry regulation and a self-policing mechanism, the industry was fraught with shoddy exhibits. While some entrepreneurs invested with the aim of maximizing the public’s enjoyment and seeking long-term profits, others developed their exhibits with minimal investment to maximize their short-term gains. One example of the latter approach is the exhibit owner who would pin dead butterflies onto the flowers in the interest of economy. Fortunately, as the industry has evolved and matured over the past 20 years, the fly-by-nights have largely disappeared.

The exhibits in Europe are mostly supplied by butterfly brokers. Whereas in 1980 there was only one full-time professional distributor of live butterflies, a company outside of Birmingham, England called Entomological Livestock Supplies, today there are many in Western Europe. These people import butterfly pupae from around the world and then mix and match the pupae to supply the needs of each of the exhibits they supply. Because butterfly pupae are highly perishable --a typical pupa will last about 10 days before the butterfly emerges-- time is of the essence. The pupae are transported by door to door courier service from the country of origin to the distributor and then repackaged and shipped within hours.

The world’s leading producers of butterfly pupae are Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Kenya, Madagascar, United States, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

In recent years the butterfly exhibit industry has flourished in North America, fueling the bulk of the industry’s growth. More than a dozen major exhibits are operating today and several more are planned or under construction. North America’s largest butterfly exposition, The Niagara Parks Commission’s (Ontario) Butterfly Garden, is a $15 million dollar facility and was opened in December 1996. During one weekend in January it received 20,000 visitors.

It should not be overlooked that another growing market for live butterflies is for butterfly releases. Increasingly, people of means are purchasing large numbers of butterflies for release at weddings and other special occasions. In Costa Rica, members of the country’s legislature recently took part in a butterfly release as part of a fund raising event for street children. As each legislator released a butterfly, he would call out aloud the name of a child. The butterfly he released represented the life and aspirations of that child. One could perceive the collective hearts of all those present fly up with each passing butterfly.