SPLENDOR UNDER GLASS

"If butterflies could only speak, what pretty dreams we'd hear about the flowers. " -- Reikan

ST. LOUIS -- You may never look at lepidopterans in the same way again.

From the short but stunning film that introduces visitors to the life cycle of the butterfly to the sparkling 8,000-square-foot conservatory housing more than 60 species and more than 400 individual butterflies, the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House & Education Center in Faust Park is a wonder of technology serving one of nature's most fragile creations.

Set against a man-made lake in a park that is one of St. Louis' best-kept secrets, the Midwest's first butterfly house opens to the public Friday.

The organization broke ground on the facility in 1997 and becomes only the ninth butterfly house in the U.S.

Six-hundred-forty-six pieces of triple-pane laminated insulating glass enclose an environment kept continuously at 84 degrees and 74 percent humidity. The idea, says curator Mark Deering, is "Brazil in a box."

Brilliantly colored blue morphos glide to and fro in the thick air while other species take up residence on the trunks of small trees until flushed by a caretaker with a watering hose. Benches are placed throughout the conservatory to allow for languid observation.

The butterfly house has both an entomologist -- Deering -- and a horitulturist, Stacy Strasiser. Her job is to tend the tropical nectar plants the butterflies feed on.

The facility does not contain plants butterflies will lay their eggs on because it is not allowed to breed butterflies.

All are imported from tropical countries -- Ecuador, Costa Rica Brazil and eventually Kenya -- and could carry unwanted parasites.

The plants come from South and Central America and the Philippines. Red pentas, the blue and purple Porter weed, yellow lantana, distinctively shaped anthurium and the Jatropha tree are abundant.

Life is fleeting for most butterfly species. They live only a few weeks, though a few of the 15,000-20,000 species in existence live up to 18 months.

Their ecological importance begins with the pollen they inadvertently spread from one flowering plant to another. They're also a good source of food for birds and other animals, both in their caterpillar and pupae stages.

Deering says the primary threat to butterflies is loss of habitat -- both plants that serve as hosts to the caterpillars and to the flowering plants the butterflies get nectar from.

In Florida, a butterfly called the Schaus swallowtail has been decimated by growth in the Miami area.

We can help by finding out which butterflies are native to our area and creating habitats that will nurture both caterpillars and butterflies, Deering says.

The eggs must be laid on plants that will nurture the caterpillar. Usually, these are not the same plants that will feed the butterfly that eventually will emerge.

Deering's master's degree in entomology has taken him on a different path from most of his classmates.

"I decided instead of killing insects I'd like to teach people to appreciate the ones around them," he said.

One of the fascinations of butterflies is a life cycle even Deering characterizes as "bizarre." Both the film and exhibits in the conservatory demonstrate how the insect progresses from egg to camouflaged caterpillar to hard-shelled pupa to exquisite butterfly, a process of metamorphosis in which only its internal organs remain unchanged.

"It's a neat trick," Deering says.

The kinds of butterflies to be found in the conservatory will change from month to month because the countries they come from all have wet and dry seasons.

Eventually, Deering hopes to double the number of butterflies in the conservatory and mount a larval display to show the eggs and caterpillars along with a reference collection of the butterflies to be found in Faust Park and in Missouri.