Category Archives: Overwinters as an adult

Butterfly Called Snout

American Snout (Libytheana carinenta). Snouts have what looks like an extremely prominent nose formed by elongated mouthparts. Certainly an offbeat sort of look for a butterfly.

Native to North and South America. A species of butterfly that overwinters as an adult.

The host plant for Snouts are Hackberry trees (Celtis). Adults are attracted to fermenting fruit, and flowers, such as Asters, Dogbane, Sweet Pepperbush, and Flowering Dogwood. They also seek salts and minerals by puddling, or on perspiring skin, as you can see in these photographs. This creature is seeking my sweat, as it is perched on the straps of my trekking poles. I was a couple miles up the mountain, so I was sweating, for sure.

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Punctuation In The Natural World

An Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma). One of the species of butterfly that overwinters as an adult. Imagine a warm winter day, you’re hiking along a mountain trail and there in front of you is an orange butterfly. This might be what you are seeing. This one has seen many miles.

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Early Spring And A Butterfly

The Mourning Cloak Butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa). One of the first butterflies that you’ll see in early spring, or during warm winter days. They’re able to accomplish this because they overwinter as adults in locations such as tree cavities or under loose tree bark. Emerging as an adult rather than having to mature from a larval or pupal stage, having a head start over other butterflies.

They sometimes are the first butterfly that you’ll see in the spring (like me, today!). They also have one of the longest lifespans, at 11 to 12 months, of any butterfly.

They generally can’t be counted on to be pollinators, since they prefer eating rotting fruit and the sap of deciduous trees.

I’m looking forward to seeing many more Mourning Cloaks as the calendar’s pages are turned.

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