With a major exhibition just opened in London and work underway on a spectacular dome housing the world's largest display of free-flying butterflies, many fans of the great outdoors have shifted their attention from the traditional quest for flora, fauna and birdlife to the discovery of our fluttery friends.

The Amazing Butterflies exhibition at the Natural History Museum includes a giant maze and butterfly house and is wowing adults and children alike.

Out near St Albans, meanwhile, work has started on Butterfly World - a 27-acre butterfly-shaped site with a 100m translucent dome forming its centrepiece 'eye'. This will house a tropical rainforest and 100,000 butterflies, and will be surrounded outside by wildflower meadows and gardens filled with flowers and plants designed to attract native and fast-declining British butterflies. Amongst other prominent ecologists and entomologists, Butterfly World has the support of Sir David Attenborough (as its Patron) and Prof David Bellamy (Chief Trustee) who at the launch of the project, said, "The dome will be big enough to contain seven Stonehenge sites and it will have in it the replica remains of a lost Mayan city and a tropical rainforest. It will be surrounded by the best wildflower meadows in Britain and 12 competition gardens which will change annually and incorporate the latest thinking on sustainable, contemporary garden design."

Butterfly World is also designed to draw attention to the plight of native British species which are in dramatic decline. The first phase of Butterfly World - the gardens and wildflower meadows - will open in June of next year and the whole project is due for completion by 2011.

Butterflies have long been the subject of some inspirational photography from our customers, especially on walking and cycling holidays, and we're looking forward to more contributions from you over the next few months.

• The Amazon rainforest and Costa Rica are prime destinations for entomologists - so don't forget to include a magnifying lense in your bag of tricks if you're heading that way

• Looking East, the dense jungles of Borneo, Malaysia, Thailand, Java and Bali are home to a kaleidoscope of Swordtails, Swallowtails and brush-footed species

• The Blue Diadem and a host of Charaxes colour Africa's denser vegetation, with Madagascar (as usual) coming up trumps with several endemic species

• Much closer to home, however, the meadows of the Alpine foothills are busy with butterflies from April through to the autumn. And the lush and pine-forested coast of Lycia, in Turkey, also gets the thumbs up.

The Natural History Museum website has some great pages and links for butterfly connoisseurs and amateurs alike, as do www.en.butterflycorner.net and www.butterflywebsite.com