Live butterflies at centre of new exhibition

Hundreds of live butterflies were released into a state-of-the-art exhibition at one of the UK's best-known museums.

Clouds of blue morpho butterflies were let loose in a specially built insect house at London's Natural History Museum.

The strikingly coloured, hand-sized insects are expected to be crowd favourites when the exhibition, Butterfly Explorers, opens next week.

The exhibition will feature butterfly species from North America, Africa, Asia and the heart of the Amazon rainforest in South America, where there are more butterflies than anywhere else on earth.

Visitors can witness the secret spectacle of the insects' life through a hatchery room.

This enables a close-up look at the butterfly lifecycle, from pupae to butterfly, and a chance to examine international butterflies emerging from chrysalises.

The exhibition will run from Thursday until September 26.