How to Make a Butterfly Project for School

A good butterfly project for school will have at least three types of butterflies exhibited for comparison. Obviously, the more butterflies exhibited, the more exciting and informative the project will be.

Things You'll Need

• Butterfly net
• Butterflies
• Jar
• Ethyl acetate
• Pins
• Glue
• Foam box
• Relaxing box
• Water sprayer
• Encyclopedia or internet access
• Keyboard and printer
• Tweezers

Instructions

Collecting the Butterflies

1. Research the best time of year to find butterflies in each locality. May through August are the best times in most areas.

2. Go to fields, public gardens and other open spaces with low plants where butterflies are known to fly.

3. Use a butterfly net to capture the butterfly.

4. Place it in a jar with ethyl acetate. This will kill the butterfly quickly and humanly and will prevent the butterfly from flapping in the jar and damaging its body.

Setting up the Collection

1. Pin the butterfly to a foam box. Open its wings and arrange it so that as much of its body can be seen.

2. Glue the foam box into a "relaxing box," the viewing box.

3. Brush off the butterfly with water

4. Research information about each butterfly, type it, print it and display with the butterfly.

Tips & Warnings

• A butterfly can be damaged by being handled improperly and will be useless for an exhibition. Care should be taken not to damage the butterfly's body while capturing it. When preparing the butterflies for exhibition, they are best handled with tweezers.

References

• starting a collection
• mounting a collection
• butterfly collections

Resources

• butterflies