FILM

Houston Museum of Natural Science Wortham IMAX® Theatre presents Bugs 3D! Insects are essential to life on Earth. They pollinate plants and recycle waste. By managing life and death they are the true caretakers of the natural world. Over three-quarter of the world’s insects live in the rainforests. One square mile of rainforest holds as many insects as there are people on Earth.

Bugs 3D! follows the life cycles of a mantis and a butterfly, from their birth to their inevitable encounter in the rainforests of Southeast Asia, where predator meets its prey. Bugs 3D! stars Papilio, a butterfly, and Hierodula, a praying mantis, who live in an abandoned hut by a river, surrounded by lush tropical foliage and a supporting cast of other intriguing and extraordinary insects.

Meet Papilio, a caterpillar that undergoes one of nature’s miraculous transformations in her short life span of eight weeks, and Hierodula, a praying mantis who embarks on an extraordinary hunting journey through the rainforest. Along the way, meet a host of other fascinating insects: Leaf Cutter Ants, Rhino Beetles, an aggressive Spiny Katydid, an Orchid Mantis, and the aptly-named Thorn Bug, in addition to scorpions, tarantulas, frogs, lizards and a colony of 3 million bats which consume two and half tons of bugs every night!

Along the way, we meet a host of other insects, which, in various deceptive guises, which also inhabit the rich, green and humid world: Leaf Cutter Ants that consume 20% of the rainforest’s leaves; Rhino Beetles battling for the attention of a female; the Trilobite Beetle hiding his tiny head under amour plating; a Scale Bug disguised as a ball of fluff; an aggressive Spiny Katydid; an Orchid Mantis which resembles the flower and the Thorn Bug, identical to a thorn. In addition, scorpions, tarantulas, frogs, lizards and a colony of three-million bats which consume two and half tons of bugs every night, skitter across the screen, some magnified 250,000 times their normal size.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science—one of the nation’s most heavily attended museums—is a centerpiece of the Houston Museum District. With four floors of permanent exhibit halls, and the Wortham IMAX® Theatre, Cockrell Butterfly Center, Burke Baker Planetarium and George Observatory and as host to world-class and ever-changing touring exhibitions, the Museum has something to delight every age group. With such diverse and extraordinary offerings, a trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science, located at One Hermann Circle Drive in the heart of the Museum District, is always an adventure.