An insectarium is a live insect zoo, or a museum or exhibit of live insects. Insectariums often display a variety of insects and similar

arthropods Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

, such as

spiders Spiders ( order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight legs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and rank seventh in total species dive ...

beetles Beetles are insects that form the order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Endopterygota. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 400,000 describ ...

, cockroaches, ants,

bees Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

, millipedes, centipedes,

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

stick insects The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...

, scorpions, mantises and woodlice. Displays can focus on learning about insects, types of insects, their habitats, why they are important, and the work of entomologists, arachnologists, and other scientists that study terrestrial arthropods and similar animals.

Overview

Some insectariums may include museum displays of mounted insects and exhibits about insects. A butterfly house is a type of insectarium that specializes in live

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and

moths Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

. In addition, there are seasonal butterfly gardens on display at many zoos, botanical gardens, nature centers, natural history museums, and science museums.

List of insectariums

Public insectariums or insect zoos include:

Africa

* Algiers Insectarium, Algiers, Algeria

Asia

Bangkok Butterfly Garden and Insectarium Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population ...

, Bangkok, Thailand
Entopia (formerly Penang Butterfly Farm)
(Penang, Malaysia) * Gunma Insect World, Kiryū, Gunma,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Insect Science Museum The Insect Science Museum () is a museum of insects in Zhongzheng District, Taipei, Taiwan. The museum is located at Cheng Kung Senior High School and it is one of the largest insect science museums in Asia. History The museum was constructed ...

, Taipei, Taiwan

Australia and Pacific

Insectarium of Victoria
(Victoria, Australia)

Europe

Insektariumas
(Lithuania, Palanga) *

Stratford Butterfly Farm Stratford Butterfly Farm is a visitor attraction in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. A leafy tropical environment is simulated inside large greenhouses. There are numerous free flying butterflies, a few free flying birds, a pool ...

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

, England * Esapolis, The largest insectarium in the province of Padova, Padova, Italy

North America

United States

* Audubon Insectarium, New Orleans, Louisiana
Bayer Insectarium
at th
Museum of Life and Science

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

Bohart Museum of Entomology The Bohart Museum of Entomology was founded in 1946 on the campus of the University of California, Davis. The museum is currently the seventh largest insect collection in North America with more than seven million specimens of terrestrial and f ...

, Davis, California *

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is the sixth oldest zoo in the United States, founded in 1873 and officially opening in 1875. It is located in the Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. It originally began with in the middle of the c ...

, World of the Insect, Cincinnati, Ohio
Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden
Strong National Museum of Play, Rochester, New York * Henry Doorly Zoo, Butterfly and Insect Pavilion, Omaha, Nebraska * Houston Museum of Natural Science, Brown Hall of Entomology,

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

* Insect Adventure, Stillwater, Oklahoma
Butterfly Biosphere
Thanksgiving Point,

Lehi, Utah Lehi ( ) is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is named after Lehi, a prophet in the Book of Mormon. The population was 75,907 at the 2020 census, up from 47,407 in 2010. The rapid growth in Lehi is due, in part, to the rapid develo ...

* The Insectarium, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania * Monsanto Insectarium at the

St. Louis Zoo The Saint Louis Zoo, officially known as the Saint Louis Zoological Park, is a zoo in Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. It is recognized as a leading zoo in animal management, research, conservation, and education. The zoo is accredited by the A ...

, St. Louis, Missouri * O. Orkin Insect Zoo at the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. * Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Ralph M. Parsons Discovery Center and Insect Zoo, Los Angeles, California * San Francisco Zoo, InsectZoo, San Francisco, California * Detroit Zoo, Wildlife interpretive gallery (aviary, and butterfly garden), Detroit, Michigan * Long Island Exhibition Center

Canada

*Lyman Entomological Museum, Quebec, Canada * Montreal Insectarium, Montréal * Newfoundland Insectarium, Reidville, Newfoundland *

Victoria Bug Zoo The Victoria Bug Zoo is a two-room minizoo that is located in downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, one block north of the Fairmont Empress Hotel. It was sold to Xing Chen in 2014. The Victoria Bug Zoo is run by General Manager Jaymie Chu ...

, Victoria, BC Canada * Victoria Butterfly Gardens, Victoria, BC, Canada