Patna: Three rearing boxes will be installed at Butterfly Park on the Kilkari Bihar Bal Bhavan premises soon, promising the city new species of butterflies.

Naturalist-cum-photographer Ankit Ranjan Pathak had joined hands with Kilkari in 2016 to open the park on Kilkari's Saidpur campus. He said the rearing boxes will be installed at the park - opened in November 2016 - next month to breed more species of butterflies.

"So far various species of butterflies can be seen at the Butterfly Park because of the natural conditions we have - we had planted host and nectar plants. Host plants like grapes and lemon trees have been planted along with nectar plants like hibiscus. The butterflies lay their eggs on the host plants which also becomes the food source of the caterpillar and then the butterflies feed on the nectar of the flowering plants. With the boxes, we will now start rearing of butterflies," said Pathak who founded the park.

The plan is to keep caterpillars of plain tiger and common cactus species in the rearing boxes

Pathak said the rearing boxes will be set up in February because butterflies go into hibernation in the winter.

"We will keep some select caterpillar species with the host plant in wooden rearing boxes to let them pupate into them at the right temperature. When the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, we will release it into the park. Visitors to the Butterfly Park would be able to the live rearing and development of the species from egg to pupae and then into butterfly," said Pathak, who thanked Kilkari Bihar Bal Bhavan programme officer Anita Thakur for helping him set up the park.

"By February we are expecting the mercury to rise, helping us in the rearing of various species of butterflies," said Pathak.

Till now, Pathak and his team have spotted more than 50 species of butterflies, including striped tiger and blue tiger, at the park.