Butterfly Adventures

Did you know up to 1 in 3 stick insects lose a leg while moulting**? Their long thin legs are designed to mimic sticks and branches, but make them extra prone to moulting complications where their legs get stuck in their old skin. You might think these guys have gotten the short end of the stick in life... but our five-legged friends go on to live perfectly healthy stick insect lives, and can even regenerate their lost legs bit by bit with each moult!

Although we previously did not sell our five-legged bugs, we think our penta-pedal bugs deserve warm loving homes. So we're going to go out on a limb here...

If you have a five-legged-friend-shaped hole in your heart, we are now offering them at a 33% discount! Send us an email at [email protected], with the subject code 'HIFIVE', and include details like your name, address and contact number.

** Reference: Tara Lynne Maginnis "Autotomy in a Stick Insect (Insecta: Phasmida): Predation Versus Molting," Florida Entomologist, 91(1), 126-127, (1 March 2008)

This is Rusty, one of our beloved spiny leaf insects. Rusty unfortunately lost one of her legs in a bad moult a while back. Luckily, spinies are incredibly resilient creatures and have the ability to regrow their legs slowly with every moult if they haven't yet reached adulthood -- her leg is now almost fully grown back (although it definitely looks different from her other legs)!! We are so proud of her🥲. Can you tell which of her legs was the one that she lost originally?

Rusty also has a striking reddish colour. While spinies are typically brownish, they can have a whole range of colours (including green, cream or lichen-patterned), depending on their environment and food plants! Scroll to see how different and brightly coloured she looks compared to one of her other spiny friends.

Brrr… it's getting kind of chilly! 🥶

Butterfly releases stop during the colder months (our last dispatch is at the end of May), but there are still plenty of ways to experience the magic ✨

Whether it’s a butterfly party tent for birthdays, butterfly gazebo for community events and festivals, school incursions that bring hands-on insect learning into the classroom, or our Spiny Leaf Insect Kits, there’s still lots happening this winter!

While we can't release butterflies into the wild during this time, we are still able to run these programmes as our staff are trained in the care of these butterflies and can keep them warm and safe indoors even though it's cold outside.