Meeting the Butterflies

Papilio memnon, the Greater Mormon, photograph © the author

We enter the butterfly enclosure through a curtain of large, light chains painted white. There are doors behind and before.

And perhaps this unusual start, setting the stage for visiting such unusual creatures, is somehow an appropriate entrance for a display of tropical butterflies. Certainly it is so from a practical perspective, as its purpose is to protect the butterflies from escaping into a more extreme climate…