Tag Archives: Mourning Cloak

Company On A Mini-hike

A mini-hike today, filled with loads of nature. Several Mourning Cloaks (Nymphalis antiopa) fluttering around me enjoying the warmth of this late winter day. One of the earliest species of butterfly to be seen in late winter since they overwinter as adults. This one looking pretty ragged, like it has had a tough time through the winter.

And oh! The sounds of Eastern Bluebirds (Sialia sialis) were all around me. Their soft beautiful warbling made me totally glad I was outside to hear them.

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Hiding Away During The Winter

Three butterflies that overwinter as adults. Snuggled down in crevices of tree bark or in leaf litter. Perhaps the leaf litter in your gardens. That is IF you’ve left the leaf litter there in your yard as a potential sanctuary from the freezing cold of winter.

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma)

Question Mark (Polygonia interrogationis)

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)

All three of these butterflies spend the winter as adults in a dormant state hiding from the chill of winter. Either under leaf litter, in a crevice of tree bark or some other place it might find to escape the cold. On any particularly warm day you might find one of these butterflies out enjoying the warmth only to return until winter has completed its progression through the calendar.

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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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Another Winter Butterfly

This is a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) which is another butterfly that you might see fluttering about in the sun on a warm winter day. A butterfly that overwinters as an adult, but enjoys those days when the temperature rises.

Like the few other butterflies that overwinter as adults, the Mourning Cloak finds a crevice in a rock, under a wedge of bark on a tree, or beneath a shingle on a house seeking shelter from the cold, as they go into a state of torpor. These butterflies have chemicals, glycols, in their bodies that work like anti-freeze, which prevent ice crystals from forming. Protection from the freezing cold.

Watch for them when the temperature is much warmer than average. Watch for them on the sunlit side of your house. Watch for them taking a break, stretching their wings, waiting for spring.