northeast-flora-and-fauna

While immature and sexually dimorphic species can look different (see Common Whitetails and Eastern Pondhawks ), sometime butterflies like the Mourning Cloak can present a different look just by repositioning its wings. (Other species that can do this include - but are not limited to - Red Admirals and Question Marks .) The 1st picture is their camouflage look, and while it doesn't blend in too well in this sandy soil, it can be quite a bit harder to spot them in leaf litter or against the bark of some trees. Though there's a light colored trim at the edges, they resemble something drab with a rough texture. June 15, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 300991453, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) But then the butterfly opened its wings, allowing us a view of its rich brown wings with light spots highlighted by a black background and with almost a gold trim on the edges. And the wings that appeared to have a rough texture with the wings up suddenly seem to...

Though easy to see in this picture, this mostly-earth-toned Mourning Cloak butterfly can be easy to miss in leaf litter [1]. And while that rich brown color of the top side of their wings can stand out, the underside of their wings - what you'll see when the wings are up - blends in even better with most backgrounds. These butterflies will generally feed on organic fluids of some sort, like tree sap or rotting fruit, though usually not nectar. This means they can be active throughout much of the spring and autumn, and can occasionally be spotted during a stretch of warm winter weather. May 12, 2023 at Lord Stirling Park Photo 282422364, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) [1] I suspect they camouflage in autumn leaf litter when the leaves aren't mostly a washed-out brown.

This was the 1st Mourning Cloak I was able to photograph this spring, though I'm almost sure I had gotten glimpses of them weeks before. Since they overwinter as adults (albeit in a dormant state) they are usually 1 of the 1st butterflies I see every spring. And although they're around all summer, they're not spotted in traditional butterfly hotspots - meadows with abundant nectar-rich flowers - since they prefer drinking sap or the juices from rotting fruits. Although lighting can affect any view , these butterflies are usually a pretty easy ID. A fresh individual will have rich brown wings with a golden rim; these alone distinguish them from any other area butterfly. Admittedly with a quick sighting in flight where all you see is a largish, dark butterfly, it could potentially be confused with our dark swallowtails or a Red-spotted Purple , but with anything close to a good look you should be able to ID these guys. This individual doesn't look especially fresh, no d...

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)

Even before I saw my 1st Mourning Cloak butterfly this spring, I saw my 1st Eastern Comma butterfly when it was still technically winter (though I'm sure it was an unseasonably warm day). With a little luck you might run across one of these guys yourself. The reason you can see these butterflies so early in the year is similar to why you can see Mourning Cloaks so early: They overwinter as adults, presumably hiding under bark or in leaf litter as they go dormant during cold temperatures. They don't rely on nectar (which is rare in winter and early spring) for sustenance, actually preferring to drink sap, the fluids of rotting fruit, or scat. They don't need flowers to survive. Note that we had some pretty cold weather after this date, but that doesn't necessarily harm this butterfly. It can re-enter a dormant state without much of a problem, and then become active again when things warm up again. March 11, 2022 at Duke Farms Photo 186583629, (c) jpviolette, some right...

Here's a butterfly that you might be able to see this time of the year or earlier, a Mourning Cloak . I found this one a little over 3 weeks ago here in NJ. Because this species can overwinter as adults, they're ready to flutter pretty much as soon as the temperatures warm up. I've heard they can sometimes be seen even in the middle of winter if we get a string of unusually warm days, though March 8 is the earliest I've personally seen one. Another reason these butterflies can be seen this time of year is that they're not dependent on flower nectar for food, actually preferring to drink tree sap, and flowers are still a little scarce this time of year. They have to be careful though, since Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers drill holes to get sap flowing but will frequently return to their holes to gobble up insects that were attracted to the sap. The Mourning Cloak's lifestyle almost certainly puts it on the menu of the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. I suspect that their un...

Here's the third Mourning Cloak I met this year. Unlike this earlier one , this butterfly has a much more tattered look to it. Although my recollection of this encounter was that the butterfly was moving around, in the picture it looks like there's webbing attached to the wings and two branches. Though clearly it's not caught in a classic spider web, perhaps it was attacked/killed by something more like a crab spider that doesn't make webs to catch prey? Even if it was still alive, it's easy to think it was approaching the end of its life. This is a species that can survive a NJ winter and live around a year, though it probably takes a toll on their bodies. I was a little surprised that I got an ID from iNaturalist on this one given that the distinctive light yellow/gold border is one of the casualties of the tattered wings. I guess that there are more people who recognized butterflies than there are people who recognize harvestmen . June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms Ph...

Here's a Mourning Cloak butterfly I met back in April. This is one of our more cold-tolerant butterflies, partly because they don't die in the winter but just enter a period of dormancy until things warm up again. The other reason you can see them early in the season is because they'll drink tree sap that's available before nectar is available from most blooming flowers. Though I'm sure of my butterfly identification, the Mourning Cloak I met isn't as colorful as ones at their color peak. A brown butterfly with rimmed with purple spots and gold trim at this stage of life looks dark brown with an off-white trim. Still, this fella looks in pretty good condition, with mostly intact wings. Though I've heard that in large numbers these butterflies can be somewhat damaging to trees, I've never gotten the impression they're numerous enough around me to be worth worrying about. As a native species, tree defenses, predation from other animals, and their para...