![\"Anita](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/anitacamacho_butterfliesclmarch2021a.60490e940ee61.png\")
Credit: Chelsea Zukowski \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\nCredit: Chelsea Zukowski \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n
Butterflies are more than just a pretty set of wings. The vital component to a healthy ecosystem\u2014second to bees as the most important pollinators\u2014we wouldn\u2019t have flowers or many crops without them. <\/p>\n
Nonprofit Butterfly Tampa opened the city\u2019s self-proclaimed first bug zoo in 2024, and also runs a nature center and native butterfly botanical garden. <\/p>\n
Founder Anita Camacho<\/a> previously told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay her passion for pollinators and spreading environmental awareness locally began about 30 years ago when her mother was diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease. Research into the disease led Camacho to learn about the long term effects of exposure to pesticides and chemicals. <\/p>\n Since then, Camacho has dedicated much of her personal and professional life to spreading the word about the benefits of chemical-free gardening, native plant gardening and native pollinator conservation. <\/p>\n At the nonprofit\u2019s annual fundraiser, the category is \u201cBug-Inspired Brilliance.\u201d Guests at the Tampa International Airport gala can come as their favorite invertebrate for the Best Dressed Bug Contest. Those who opt for \u201celevated business casual\u201d won\u2019t be bugged about it.<\/p>\n Tickets start at $75 for Butterfly Ball, happening Thursday, Feb. 12 in Tampa.<\/a><\/p>\n This article appears in Feb. 05 \u2013 11, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSelene San Felice is managing editor of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. Prior to joining CL in 2025, she started the Axios Tampa Bay newsletter and worked for her hometown paper, The Capital in Annapolis,…\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Selene San Felice\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Chelsea Zukowski \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay Butterflies are more than just a pretty set of wings.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[70193,70194,70195,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-145022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-anita-camacho","tag-butterfly-ball","tag-butterfly-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}