Hearts aflutter as butterfly exhibit returns to Gorman Nature Center

MANSFIELD — Audrey Musche dipped her q-tip into a giant slice of watermelon. Once the cotton tip was saturated with sweet red juice, she held it a few inches from the Monarch butterfly perched on the screen door.

In just a few moments, the butterfly caught the scent and crawled on board for a snack.

Fran LeMasters with All a Flutter Butterflies is at Gorman Nature Center this week, providing a rare opportunity for visitors to see dozens of butterflies at their fingertips. Her live exhibit is home to nearly 30 butterflies, including Monarchs and swallowtails.

“We just planted a butterfly garden at our home this year so we were anxious to see the plants that they used here and what kind of butterflies it attracted,” said Kathy Jones, who visited with her husband and grandchildren Wednesday morning.

Beatrice and Oliver walked around the enclosure, trying to entice the creatures with more watermelon juice.

“When you are up close, they just usually just fly away and so it’s really interesting how you get to really see them up close and see their beautiful designs,” said 7-year-old Beatrice.

LeMasters has been a butterfly breeder and exhibitor for 21 years and is a member of the International Butterfly Breeders Association. In addition to traveling around the state with her winged beauties, she also takes time to educate visitors about the butterfly’s lifestyle, camouflage technique and migration patterns.

“Here at Gorman, people bring their kids out and this is great because they’re actually learning about their environment instead of their next video game,” she said.

On Wednesday, she explained why a cluster of monarchs was clamoring on the ceiling of the screened-in structure. Like many Ohio residents after a long winter, they were looking to warm up a bit.

“When the sun hits them, they absorb the warmth from the sun through their wings, and that gives them the ability to fly,” LeMasters explained. “If they get too cold, the liquids in their bodies actually thicken and so they have a hard time flapping their wings when it’s cold.”

For visitors who want to watch the entire butterfly life cycle from home, LeMasters has monarch chrysalises and painted lady butterfly kits for sale. The kits start with an egg that hatches into a caterpillar in about 4 to 5 days.

Jason Larson, executive director of the Richland County Park District, said LeMaster’s exhibit shines a light on the important role butterflies and other pollinators play in the environment. 

“We’re just trying to let people know why it’s important to protect our pollinators and protect those kinds of habitats,” Larson said. “It’s not just for monarchs. Many other things are going to use a pollinator habitat — bees, wasps, beetles, hummingbirds, all types of things.”

LeMasters will be at Gorman Nature Center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sunday. The exhibit is a prelude to this weekend’s 8th annual Pollinator & Native Plant Festival, hosted by the Richland County Park District.

The festival takes place Saturday and Sunday at Gorman Nature Center. Featured activities include prairie walks and demonstrations from area beekeepers, All a Flutter Butterflies and the Richland Soil and Water Conservation District.

Marengo-based plant retailer Natives in Harmony will be onsite with seeds from close to 200 varieties of native Ohio flora.

There will also be demonstrations on how to plant a pollinator garden. Planting pollinator gardens is one way to support butterflies, bees and other creatures that help ensure the survival of native Ohio plants.

These gardens contain native plants that can sustain pollinators as they work and Monarchs as they migrate across North America. Many habitats migratory butterflies once relied upon have been destroyed due to land development.

“If you think about the interior of the United States, it used to all be tall grass prairie,” Larson said. “So these animals had more than enough to get them from point A to point B.

“Now with habitat loss and everything being converted to agriculture and everybody wanting to get rid of weeds and things like that these animals have fewer and fewer places to stop.”