Tipsy Butterflies Sit Out the Storms

LONDON — Two rare butterflies that spend most of their lives in a drunken stupor thanks to a diet of fermenting fruit were safely back in a London zoo Thursday after surviving heavy storms.

Officials at the London Butterfly House said the two South American Owl butterflies, with six-inch wingspans, had miraculously survived temperatures well below that of their normal tropical habitat by taking shelter in a garden shed.

They fluttered to freedom from the London Butterfly House together with thousands of other rare specimens when a falling tree shattered the roof during a storm last week.