Greetings, Bugfans,

Mourning cloaks ( antiopa), named after the dark cloak of someone bereaved, are large whose dark, “tweedy” underwings hide a spiffy chocolate-brown upper wing with cream and blue highlights. They frequent sunny paths, gardens, and woods openings. As it launches itself into its flap-and-glide flight, a Mourning cloak may produce a definite “click.” When it’s surprised by a predator, it may play dead and fall into the leaf litter, where it is well camouflaged.

The first Mourning Cloak of the season is a welcome harbinger of spring in Canada, Europe, and parts of Asia (they range as far north as the Arctic circle) as well as in the US. How do they do it? Using isometric exercise of some flight muscles, a Mourning cloak can raise the temperature of its thorax about 5 degrees (a handy skill, since the thorax houses both wings and legs). It is also among the hairiest of butterflies; the hairs’ insulating value allows it to fly when the temperature sags below 50 degrees. Like the Angle wings, the first Mourning Cloak of spring went through the winter as adults.

Mourning Cloaks live longer than most butterflies - 10 months or more – and a complicated life story it is! The summer brood emerges just after the summer solstice, forages for a while, and then aestivates (suspends all activity) until early fall. It’s speculated that this reduces both predation and wear and tear. After a fall feeding period, they select a sheltered spot to overwinter. Sometimes they fly during a late winter thaw – and visit sap buckets in the sugar bush - re-entering aestivation when the temperature dips). According to Butterflies of the Great Lakes Region, by Douglas and Douglas, if their hibernaculum doesn’t provide them with the right mix of moisture and cold, they may fatally desiccate in winter. Their spring food preferences include nectar from the early-blooming and sap from maple and , trees with relatively high sugar content. In spring and fall, adults prefer tree sap and rotting fruit, but in summer the newly emerged adults will nectar on a few kinds of flowers.

Hikers may be confronted by amorous Mourning Cloaks. When you enter his territory, the male will check you out and see if you have courtship in mind. If you don’t respond appropriately to his signals, he will depart and wait for more receptive company.

The prickly (that’s physiology, not “attitude”), black caterpillars of the Mourning Cloak have slightly- branched spines, lots of white dots and eight larger red spots. Entomologists in the 19th century falsely believed that the caterpillars were “venomous and capable of inflicting dangerous wounds” (The Audubon Society Pocket Guide to Familiar Butterflies of North America). They feed communally on , cottonwood, elm, birch and hackberry, where their numbers are whittled down by both predators and parasitic flies and wasps. When upset by the appearance of a potential predator, the herd of caterpillars will thrash about on their willow stems, bumping the leaves and producing a rustling racket that may discourage the predator. A herd of Mourning Cloak caterpillars may defoliate part or all of a food plant. Douglas and Douglas speculate that there may only be one brood a year in the northern Great Lakes, meaning that the adult that emerges in June will, in turn, lay its eggs the following spring.

The BugLady