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At every table: Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD · Co-⁠founder · Scientific Lead

While you wait

Explore Lucy’s drawer at home

39 species from her entomological drawer, the science she brings to pop-⁠ups, a Field Journal for young explorers, and butterfly science for schools and home.

It starts small

The first pop-⁠ups are simple: tables, games, preserved specimens, a microscope. Each one adds something the last didn’t.

The building comes last.

Illustrations of what the pop-⁠ups will look like

Upcoming pop-⁠ups

No venue is announced until the partnership is confirmed. Dates move with the weather; the list gets told first.

How a pop-⁠up works

Your ticket covers the whole event.
A Game Guide teaches you every game at the table. No experience needed.
Lucy brings the science station, specimens and microscopes, and her talks. What Lucy brings varies from one pop-⁠up to the next.
Pop-⁠up tickets, where there are any, are sold through the ticketing page linked from each pop-⁠up.

Where we’ve been

Geek Out

Sat, Nov 7, 2026

Conundrum Farms

Sun, Oct 25, 2026

Our tent at the Sunday Fun Day: framed specimens, a microscope, butterfly coloring pages and Lucy answering bug questions.

More photos (2)

A visitor in a straw hat talks with Lucy across the specimen table, with a microscope, a framed display and butterfly coloring pages between them.

Our station under the tent at Conundrum Farms: a family looks over the framed specimens while Lucy talks with them beside an Ask the entomologist sign.

A stereo microscope in front of two wooden frames of pinned butterflies on a white tablecloth, with field guides and a Join the List sign behind.

Pollo Rosa Vineyard

Sat, Oct 24, 2026

Our first pop-up: family board games and a specimen table with a stereo microscope.

More photos (3)

Family board games stacked on a round patio table in the shade, with a garden gate hung with colored glass and live oaks behind.

A wooden frame of pinned butterflies in four rows: bright blue, yellow and orange, green, and black-and-white wings, with one large dark brown butterfly.

A second frame of pinned butterflies in four rows, from black-and-yellow striped wings to a large black-and-white butterfly in the center and two with long tails.

Take one home

Any butterfly in Lucy’s collection, mounted by Lucy in a double-glass frame. From $45 + tax.

Visit the shop

A living butterfly conservatory and a game hall — in the making

We are designing a place in Texas where you will walk through a warm greenhouse full of native butterflies, then sit down at a long oak table and play a game with someone who will teach you the rules. One ticket, both halves, no rush.

Concept rendering of the entrance hall: stained glass, framed specimen cases along both walls, a chalkboard and a welcome desk

Plate I

The Threshold

You will enter past stained glass and a wall of framed specimen cases. A guide will meet you at the welcome desk.

Concept rendering · not a photograph

Concept rendering of the conservatory: a monarch feeding on lantana under a glasshouse roof

Plate II

Chrysalis Grove

Warm, humid air, lantana in flower, and native butterflies feeding a few inches from where you stand. This is what we are planning — after construction and USDA APHIS permitting.

Concept rendering · not a photograph

Concept rendering of the chrysalis cabinet: rows of chrysalides on brass rails, one monarch newly emerged, a child watching through the glass — Concept rendering · not a photograph

Concept rendering of the conservatory: a stream under a moss bridge, stone paths, native planting and butterflies in flight under a glasshouse roof — Concept rendering · not a photograph

Concept rendering of the game hall: oak tables, oak shelves of games at reachable height, a chalk quest board marked with a butterfly and a die, a carved Game Guide desk, a mezzanine with seating and a stained-glass monarch window

Plate III

The Great Hall

Long oak tables, reachable shelves of games, a chalk quest board, and a carved Game Guide desk. A guide will teach you the rules at the table.

Concept rendering · not a photograph

Meet the Scientist

Lucy will lead the conservatory once it opens — after the building is complete and the federal permits are in place. That is the difference.

Most butterfly houses simply buy pupae and replace what doesn’t survive. Our vision is more rooted: a future, fully permitted rearing program where Texas native butterflies grow on the Texas native plants they depend on. When you meet them, you’ll be meeting insects raised in harmony with the landscape they belong to.

For exotic butterflies, we follow a different path — the one required by federal rules. Exotic species will arrive only as USDA-⁠approved pupae and will be displayed in their adult stage. They will not be bred, raised, or kept with host plants. Their beauty will be part of the experience, but their life cycle will remain exactly where regulations say it must.

Native butterflies, grown under permit on native plants.
Exotic butterflies, displayed responsibly as adults.
Two approaches, one conservatory — built with care, science, and respect for every rule that protects our ecosystems.

Lucy Garcia Salik, PhD

Co-⁠founder · Scientific Lead

Training: PhD in Entomology — doctoral and postdoctoral research on the taxonomy and molecular phylogeny of Neotropical butterflies (Nymphalidae).
Exhibit: Lepidopterist Lead, Fort Worth Botanic Garden “Butterflies in the Garden,” 2024–2026.
Entomology: Entomology Team Associate, Texas Discovery Gardens Butterfly Conservatory and Insect Zoo, 2026.
Teaching: Science educator since 2005 — museum science communication in Brazil and science lab teacher in Texas.
Professional: Member, International Association of Butterfly Exhibitors and Suppliers (IABES)

Three seasons operating a USDA-⁠permitted butterfly exhibit — the same permitting our future conservatory will require.

The honest part

We are building this the slow way.

The building gets built because enough people said they wanted it before there was anything to see. Founding members are that proof.

Put your name on the plans

Founding members get first booking, pop-⁠up invites, and a free packet of native seeds at the door. Same list.

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Compliance & USDA APHIS

Preserved specimens

All preserved specimens displayed at our pop-⁠ups are purchased from licensed suppliers and are fully compliant with USDA APHIS regulations.

Pop-⁠ups

What comes to each pop-⁠up is listed with that event.

When the permits come, so do live butterflies. These butterflies will always be purchased as adults from authorized breeders here in Texas, kept in full containment, and brought only in their final stage of life. No eggs, no caterpillars, no host plants. Just the beauty of the adult butterfly, shared responsibly and in full alignment with USDA APHIS guidelines.

Live butterflies, when present, are always Texas native species, purchased exclusively from authorized breeders within Texas, kept in full containment, with no environmental release and no reproduction.

The conservatory

The conservatory shown in the renderings is a future project. Free-⁠flying butterflies will only be introduced after construction and issuance of the required federal permits (PPQ-⁠526).