Wings and things

A Postman Butterfly landed on my Biddy Murphy Irish linen cap and decided it was home. The simple things bring such joy to life.

It wasn't a brief visit. The winged beauty hitched a ride—content, unhurried—as I made my way around the Butterfly Pavilion along the New Orleans riverfront. A Tiger Longwing apparently found my royal blue Columbia camp shirt equally inviting and claimed the back shoulder. Both stayed until it was time to leave and a staff member gently coaxed them on their way.

Getting there meant meandering through the rest of the Audubon Insectarium.

The scorpions, beetles, roaches and other creepy crawlies on display are not exactly my cup of tea. But they're fascinating—and the exhibits make a genuine case for why every last one of them matters. Turns out there's a growing community of people who don't just tolerate these creatures—they keep them as pets. Jumping spiders. Isopods. Beetles. It's a bug's life, I guess. The flea circus was a nostalgic hoot.

The butterfly garden is the payoff. Visitors are in a darkened staging area, but once the doors open, you are escorted into a sun-drenched world of lush, tropical greenery as hundreds upon hundreds of technicolor Lepidoptera fill the sky. There are some 20 species of butterflies and moths in the collection. Every one of them an "oh, wow!" delight.

A Blue Clipper—iridescent blue-green with geometric black and white wings—worked over a slice of fermenting citrus like it had all the time in the world. It was the most visually stunning creature in the room.

The bottom line: The bug exhibits are genuinely fascinating—but a pet scorpion gets a "no, thank you." The butterflies are worth the drive.