Picture of the Day: Butterflies

The geodesic dome that houses over 1,000 butterflies

At MGM Macau there's a butterfly exhibit on everyday until October.

Many butterflies hang out on a giant Datura flower

Called "The Magic of Butterfly Reinvention at MGM", it features a large geodesic dome with over 130 species of butterflies, over 1,000 in total.

Luckily the line wasn't too long and as luck would have it, the young woman counting the number of people to go in stopped at me.

When I pleaded that I was just one person, she let me in.

Inside is a fantasy space, with giant curly willow vine created by UK artist Tom Hare and large Datura flowers. For a high-tech touch, there are some 60 iPads placed around the space with animations of butterflies.

The butterflies seem to prefer children over adults

But we'd really come to see the beautiful insects themselves.

Many of them hung out beyond arm's reach and thought that if they were immobile we'd give up, but we were too excited and snapped away with our cameras.

Strangely the active butterflies seemed partial to children, who apparently had no problem coaxing the insects into their hands.

And then after about 10 minutes our time was up and we were ushered out after our up close and personal visit with these beautiful creatures.

A closeup of a butterfly, whose back wings are a brilliant blue

The Magic of Butterfly Reinvention at MGM
Daily until October, 10am-10pm
Free admission
MGM Macau
Avenida Dr Sun Yat Sen
NAPE, Macau