The third annual ButterflyFest will flutter into the Florida Museum of Natural History this weekend.
Unlike previous years, ButterflyFest will take place mostly indoors, featuring classroom activities about topics including the pollination habits of hummingbirds and bees to the quirky habits of butterflies, a news release for the event stated.
The festival will take place Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
There will also be live entertainment including Irish step dancing, a children's string group and the Klezmer Katz, a band that blends Miami Big Band music and traditional Eastern European music, the release stated.
A new exhibit has been added to the festival's lineup that will allow families to learn the roles certain plants play in a butterfly's life, said Doug Noble, the museum's head of exhibits and public programs.
"They can even take the plants home with them and select a caterpillar to put in the garden," Noble said.
Noble is most excited about the exhibition of rare butterfly fossils. These fossils, which are from Florissant, Colo., are rarely taken out because they are sensitive to light.
"It's a neat, neat opportunity," he said of the fossils.
Some of the fossils in the exhibit are as old as 70 million years, the release stated.
Noble said there will also be an unnamed, 2-million-year-old butterfly species trapped in amber on display.
Last year, people came from as far as Miami to take part in ButterflyFest, he said.
Noble said the country could easily fall into famine without butterflies, but a small effort in the change of landscapes or gardens can help restore to their habitats.
"Butterflies are a wonderful natural resource," he said. "We're capable of helping them out and helping ourselves out."
