The Insectarium did indeed have it's own building down the street, but it closed a few years ago. Audubon decided to renovate the Aquarium and carve out a separate Insectarium in the same building. They are separately ticketed spaces, with the entrance to each being beside one another.
This review and pictures are actually from August 2023, but I never got around to doing the review or uploading the images.
The combo ticket is $39, which is a pretty reasonable price for both. I found the aquarium to be nice, but smaller than I remembered (I last went in the late 90s). I believe that I spent about an hour in the Insectarium.
Overall this is a really cool exhibit. I don't think that anything was particularly rare, but the tanks were all nicely decorated and seemed of adequate size for the animals. The only comparison of a insect zoo that I personally have is the ABQ Biopark Insectarium, which is smaller than Audubon. Audubon does not try to make the exhibits immersive, it is more of a gallery style.
The galleries are loosely divided between land and water insects, along with a handful of crustaceans.
Flower chafer and sun beetles:
The leaf-cutting ant exhibit was a bit underwhelming. ABQ has them in an open area where you can observe them working in a mock forest, here it is just a tank.
They had a pretty good selection of different leaf and stick insects including: Dead leaf mantis, golden-eyed walkingstick, jumping stick, two-striped walkingstick, and giant prickly stick. There may be more, but those are the ones I got pictures of:
Some of the aquatic animals included: crayfish, apple snail, water scavenger beetle, and predacious diving beetle.
I can't remember where it was in the place, but the Hercules beetle was cool, I have never seen one in person before:
A large portion of the facility was taken up by the Butterfly garden. I have been in a number of these and this was about the same, honestly it was nice but nothing noteworthy (other than being on the second level).
Overall this was a really neat place and I would recommend it if you are in New Orleans, and especially if youa re going to go to the aquarium. I would certainly go back here if I am in NO again.
This review and pictures are actually from August 2023, but I never got around to doing the review or uploading the images.
The combo ticket is $39, which is a pretty reasonable price for both. I found the aquarium to be nice, but smaller than I remembered (I last went in the late 90s). I believe that I spent about an hour in the Insectarium.
Overall this is a really cool exhibit. I don't think that anything was particularly rare, but the tanks were all nicely decorated and seemed of adequate size for the animals. The only comparison of a insect zoo that I personally have is the ABQ Biopark Insectarium, which is smaller than Audubon. Audubon does not try to make the exhibits immersive, it is more of a gallery style.
The galleries are loosely divided between land and water insects, along with a handful of crustaceans.
Flower chafer and sun beetles:
The leaf-cutting ant exhibit was a bit underwhelming. ABQ has them in an open area where you can observe them working in a mock forest, here it is just a tank.
They had a pretty good selection of different leaf and stick insects including: Dead leaf mantis, golden-eyed walkingstick, jumping stick, two-striped walkingstick, and giant prickly stick. There may be more, but those are the ones I got pictures of:
Some of the aquatic animals included: crayfish, apple snail, water scavenger beetle, and predacious diving beetle.
I can't remember where it was in the place, but the Hercules beetle was cool, I have never seen one in person before:
A large portion of the facility was taken up by the Butterfly garden. I have been in a number of these and this was about the same, honestly it was nice but nothing noteworthy (other than being on the second level).
Overall this was a really neat place and I would recommend it if you are in New Orleans, and especially if youa re going to go to the aquarium. I would certainly go back here if I am in NO again.
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