__NOTOC__ Konya Tropical Butterfly Garden ( tr, Konya Tropikal Kelebek Bahçesi), opened in 2015, is a

butterfly house A butterfly house, conservatory, or lepidopterarium is a facility which is specifically intended for the breeding and display of butterflies with an emphasis on education. Some butterfly houses also feature other insects and arthropods. Butterf ...

located in

Selçuklu Selçuklu is a town and district of Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey. Selçuklu is one of the central districts of Konya along with the districts of Karatay and Meram Meram is a town and district of Konya Province in the C ...

district of

Konya Province Konya Province ( tr, ), in southwest Central Anatolia, is the largest province of Turkey. The Province, provincial Capital (political), capital is the city of Konya. Its traffic code is 42. The Kızılören solar power plant in Konya will be ...

, central Turkey.

History and design

The butterfly house was built by the Municipality of Selçuklu next to the Selçuklu Flower Garden (Selçuklu Çiçek Bahçesi) and the Adventure Tower (Macera Kulesi) inside the Butterfly Valley Park (Kelebekler Vadisi Parkı), one of the biggest urban parks in Selçuklu. It was opened on 4 July 2015. The

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

-based multinational architecture and engineering company Arup provided architectural design for the construction of the butterfly house. The building, which is designed in the form of a butterfly and covered with a glass roof, won the prestigious Turkish Best Architectural Design award in the Public Buildings category of 2018 Sign of the City. It covers including walking areas of .

Environmental aspects

It is the first butterfly sanctuary in the country, and has a butterfly flight area of . It is kept at a constant temperature of and 80% humidity all year long in a city with a cold

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

. The environment provides habitat for more than 20,000

tropical plants Tropical vegetation is any vegetation in tropical latitudes. Plant life that occurs in climates that are warm year-round is in general more biologically diverse that in other latitudes. Some tropical areas may receive abundant rain the whole ye ...

of more than 150 species and thousands of tropical butterflies from

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

habitats belonging to up to 45 species. All the life cycle of the butterflies from the caterpillar larva, to

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

and finally to adult stage can be observed. A team consisting of a tropical plant expert and six

horticulturist Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

s deals with the cultivation of the tropical vegetation in the

greenhouse A greenhouse (also called a glasshouse, or, if with sufficient heating, a hothouse) is a structure with walls and roof made chiefly of Transparent ceramics, transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic condit ...

, which satisfy the vital needs of the butterflies. For the care of the plants, natural or traditional methods are applied to control harmful organisms since the use of

pesticide Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampri ...

s is a threat to the butterflies. Other staff of

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

s and

veterinary physician A veterinarian (vet), also known as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary physician, is a medical professional who practices veterinary medicine. They manage a wide range of health conditions and injuries in non-human animals. Along with this, vet ...

s work for the care and protection of the butterfly house. The facility also features a Butterfly Museum, an Insect Museum and a Nature Education Class. The butterfly house also hosts scientific activities for students on

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

, birds, insects, and upon special request on

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s and other interesting creatures.

Status

The butterfly house is open to the public from 9:00 to 17:00

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

, but is closed on Mondays. It is served by city bus line #47. The butterfly house attracts an average of about 350,000 tourists a year. As of early November 2018, the number of visitors had exceeded 1.5 million since its opening.

Notes

References

External links