Mourning Cloak in Weird Light

When I 1st spotted this lepidopteran (I was pretty sure it was a butterfly or moth), I wasn't sure what I was looking at because of the dark-and-pale wing pattern. It turns out that I was seeing a butterfly I see semi-regularly, a Mourning Cloak. The abdomen and wings close to it were in bright light while the rest of the butterfly was shaded. (Once I got my binoculars on it, I recognized the wing pattern easily enough, but from a distance I thought I might have stumbled upon something much stranger.)

More about these butterflies is here.

September 21, 2022 at the John Clyde Native Grassland Preserve
Photo 248765523, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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