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Sensational Butterflies, at the Natural History Museum in London, and a new book, Butterfly People, explore our fascination with these gorgeous insects

at London鈥檚 Natural History Museum until 15 September

鈥淢Y PARENTS took me to a butterfly house when I was 6. That Christmas, I asked for a greenhouse.鈥� By the age of 8, Luke Brown had bred his first butterfly, the zebra longwing, Heliconius charithonia. Now, as manager of the Sensational Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, it is that child鈥檚 delight he hopes to inspire.

And he succeeds. Against the backdrop of the museum鈥檚 towers, a heated marquee attracts visitors to walk around an evocation of a butterfly鈥檚 life cycle, with up to 1500 tropical and semi-tropical butterflies and moths dancing around them. Especially exciting is a glass-fronted warm room, where nascent butterflies emerge from chrysalises and gingerly unfurl their wings.

The romance of butterflies is also captured in William Leach鈥檚 book Butterfly People. He reminds us of the duality of these 鈥渇lying jewels鈥�, initially desired as objects of beauty, and later seen as representing the spirituality of nature versus emergent capitalism.

Leach voyages from the 18th to the 20th century, telling strange stories of America鈥檚 obsessive 鈥渂utterfly people鈥�. We meet, for example, the owner of a coal mine turned eminent lepidopterist, and a Shakespearean actor who entertained gold miners panning the Wild West 鈥� and also hunted his own lepidopteran gold.

In many ways, this is a boys鈥� adventure story in which gun-toting naturalists imperil their lives just to touch the wing of a rare species. Today鈥檚 butterfly people will be enthralled, outsiders less so. But the wonder Leach evokes will captivate all who appreciate the natural world.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淛ewels that fly鈥�