Pacific Science Center Life Sciences

By Terry Pagos | May 1, 2016 Seven years ago, Pacific Science Center’s Life Sciences Department started the PacSciLife blog as “a peek behind the scenes” with stories of our animal care a...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/05/pacscilife-gets-new-home.html

This week you will find tigers, and leopards, and crows! (Oh, my!) in our Tropical Butterfly House. But don’t be afraid. They are all members of the Order Lepidoptera from Malaysia. Stop by an...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/fresh-sheet-april-30-2016.html

By Jenn Purnell For many years there have been two Angel’s Trumpet trees in our Tropical Butterfly House (Brugmansia × candida). These trees are in the center bed, and have large, pale orang...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/farewell-to-angels-trumpet-tree.html

By Sarah Moore Do you have some stick insects or walking stick bugs that you inherited from a classroom, or got as a pet, and that you don’t want any more? Did you know that Pacific Science...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/stick-insect-amnesty.html

This week's pupae shipment contains beautiful selection butterflies from Costa Rica including some members of the tiger wing complex . Come visit our Tropical Butterfly House and see how many di...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/fresh-sheet-april16-2016.html

By Katie Malmberg Imagine you are a bird and an orange butterfly speeds past you. You ate an orange butterfly once and it made you sick, but you don’t know if this is the same kind of butter...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/look-its-another-tiger-wing-butterfly.html

This is the last article in the series by Life Sciences Volunteer Terry Pagos about her visits to butterfly farms in Costa Rica with her host, Paola Vargas Salas, Export Manager of Costa Rica En...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-butterfly-farm-of-familia-otarola.html

This week we have 575 butterfly pupae from two countries filling the emerging window of our Tropical Butterfly House. Stop by and see if your favorite species is emerging. Neotropical Insects ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/fresh-sheet-april-9-2016.html

This article is a continuation of the previous post by Life Sciences Volunteer Terry Pagos about her visit to butterfly farms in Costa Rica with her host, Paola Vargas Salas, export manager of...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-visit-to-jardin-ecologico-pierella.html

Almost every week this blog publishes a “Fresh Sheet” – a list of pupae we receive from distant countries to display in our Tropical Butterfly House. We know what happens after the pupae ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/butterflies-from-costa-rica.html

Malaysia is experiencing a heat wave that adversely affects pupation of some butterfly species. However, harsh weather conditions won’t prevent the following beautiful Lepidoptera from flying ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/04/fresh-sheet-april-2-2016.html

We have an especially exciting shipment from Costa Rica this week, as part of our Life Sciences Team visiting Costa Rica may have actually met these butterflies as caterpillars before they made ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/fresh-sheet-march-19-2016.html

If you look at some of the arthropod cages in the Insect Village, you might think that Animal Care is not very good at keeping the enclosures clean. Actually something else is going on that’s ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/why-is-that-cage-so-dirty.html

Our latest shipment of butterflies from Suriname includes 3 different "tiger" butterflies: orange, black and yellow butterflies. Can you identify the one pictured above? Neotropical Insects N...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/fresh-sheet-march-12-2016.html

Lots of critters are hatching around Pacific Science Center including eggs from the Australian stick (Extatosoma tiaratum) insect colony. This week, Animal Care Intern Davis presents another ed...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/aussie-stick-hatchlings.html

If you need to warm up after visiting Pacific Science Center’s Polar Science Weekend , stop by our Tropical Butterfly House. A colorful shipment of butterflies from Malaysia will be flying. ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/fresh-sheet-march-5-2016.html

Pacific Science Center’s Dinosaur exhibit is many things. It’s iconic. It’s beloved. To many kids, it’s real. It’s also a bit static, and very much considered a place for kids to go an...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/03/evolution-for-dinosaurs.html

Ever wondered how we release the butterflies into our Tropical Butterfly House? Watch to find out! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRudXBixwJ8

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/releasing-butterflies.html

Do you like plants, dirt, and science education? Do you think topics like pollination biology and plant domestication are cool? If so, come join our team of Horticulture Exhibit Volunteers! V...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/be-horticulture-exhibit-volunteer.html

Over 400 pupae arrive this week from our good friends in Costa Rica. These beautiful butterflies are going to love the nectar, warmth, and humidity in our Tropical Butterfly House thanks to our ...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/fresh-sheet-february-20-2016.html

As today is a special day to celebrate love, Animal Caretaker Katie has written a poem in Horatian Ode format to one of her favorite friends at Pacific Science Center: Iggy the Iguana. Happy Va...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/ode-to-iguana.html

Have you looked into the Emerging Window in our Tropical Butterfly House lately? Check it out soon. There is always something going on! Bioproductores de El Salvador El Salvador 12 - Archeo...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/fresh-sheet-february-13-2016.html

Recently, we discussed the solution to identifying our individual naked mole rats: microchipping! The following is a photo story of this procedure. First, Animal Caretakers Lauren and Maid...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-microchipping-photo-story.html

In addition to this week’s shipment of beautiful butterflies, our Malaysian vendors have sent us female Deroplatys lobata (Malaysian Dead Leaf Mantis). Look for this mantid on exhibit in the I...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/fresh-sheet-february-6-2016.html

Since the arrival of six naked mole rats to Pacific Science Center from the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens in 1993, we have tried a variety of methods to identify each individual. Perhaps we ha...

http://pacscilife.blogspot.com/2016/02/identifying-colony.html