N 36° 1’48.03″ W 78°53’50.60″ Google Earth location
While the location shown provides a high likelihood of seeing this species, it really only applies to precisely the location shown. Because this is the Butterfly House of the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, yet malachites (the butterfly, Siproeta stelenes) are not native to North Carolina. Nonetheless, the Butterfly House provides plenty of opportunities not just for closeups of a wide variety of Lepidoptora, but fartistic compositions and behavior and even emerging from chrysalises (or chrysalides of you like, an acceptable alternative plural.) It is a semi-routine spot that I visit, though it’s been a few years since I was last there, despite vowing to get there this past winter. See, it’s a great place to visit in the winter because the butterflies are visible year-round, providing something to photograph in the cold lean months. But it’s best to go on a sunny day because the lighting is almost entirely from the greenhouse roof, so things look best in the sunlight plus you have enough light for faster shutter speeds, often necessary for the occupants. And preferably on a not-too-cold day simply from the idea that you have to hike a little ways outdoors to reach the Butterfly House from the entrance, and you’d probably want a light jacket because the greenhouse area itself is essentially a tropical rainforest in climate and you’re not going to want a heavy coat. Free time and sunny conditions simply did not coincide this past winter, and so I never got there.
You can visit in summer of course, but a word of warning for doing photography no matter when: the conditions will fog up your lenses if the lenses aren’t warm enough. So coming out of the cold, or unpacking the camera from the insulating padded camera bag when it’s been sitting in air conditioning for a while, means leaving the camera out with the lens cap on for several minutes while it warms up enough to prevent condensation. And for dog’s sake, do not try to switch lenses, because condensation on the front surface is bad enough, but getting it inside the lens (and/or the mirror box of the camera itself) is notoriously difficult to clear – I made this mistake one muggy evening in Florida with a camera that had sat indoors all day. Just be patient.
Avoid weekends too, because of the plethora of young children hurtling around in total disregard, but you’ll never be completely free of them, you can just avoid the bulk. Meanwhile, the Museum of Life and Science has a ton of other things to photograph as well, some easy, some that take effort and luck. Definitely worth a visit.