The Houston Museum of Natural Science was founded in 1909 –
meaning that the curators of the Houston Museum of Natural
Science have been collecting and preserving natural and cultural
treasures for a hundred years now. For this yearlong series, our
current curators have chosen one hundred exceptional objects
from the Museum’s immense storehouse of specimens and
artifacts—one for each year of our history. Check back here
frequently to learn more about this diverse selection of behind-
the-scenes curiosities—we will post the image and description of
a new object every few days. This description is from Nancy, the
museum’s director of the Cockrell Butterfly Center and curator
of entomology. She’s chosen a selection of objects that
represent the rarest and most interesting insects in the
Museum’s collections,that we’ll be sharing here – and at
100.hmns.org- throughout the year. Madagascar Sunset Moth –
Chrysiridia rhipheus This spectacular, iridescently colored moth
is considered by many to be the most beautiful o