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| Mourning Cloak butterfly (Nymphalis antiopa): Mother Nature's Backyard |
For the past two summers, the
numbers and species of butterflies in S. California gardens have been
abnormally low. This year, with a wet
winter easing the drought, many butterflies have returned. We were particularly worried about the
Mourning Cloak, a butterfly rarely sighted in our area in recent years. We’re happy to report that the numbers of Nymphalis antiopa – in Preserves as
well as gardens – are up again this summer in California. The scientific name is pronounced nim-FAL-is an-tee-OH-puh.
Growing
up in S. California in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, Mourning Cloaks were a very common
sight. We searched for the more ‘exotic’
butterflies in our wanderings; Mourning Cloaks were hardly worth the effort. Adulthood (and loss of butterfly habitat and
numbers) have brought a new appreciation for these unique and beautiful insects.
We hope you enjoy them as much as we do.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : perched on Purple sage, Redondo Beach, CA |
Mourning
Cloaks have a huge natural range. They
are common throughout N. America, Europe, north-central Asia and Mexico. They
were first defined by Linnaeus in 1758 (yes, this butterfly is common in
Scandinavia!) [1]. In Great Britain, these butterflies are called ‘Camberwell
Beauties’; they do not over-winter there and must migrate from Scandinavia and
the continent [1]. They are known as
Mourning Cloaks in most of Europe and N. America [2] and are the Montana state
butterfly.
Mourning
Cloaks belong to the Brushfoot butterfly family. The Nymphalidae include several
local favorites: the Lorquin’s Admiral, the Common Buckeye, the Red Admiral,
the Gulf Fritillary and the West Coast, Painted and American Lady
butterflies. Our gardens would be far
less interesting without the Brushfoots.
They are relatively large, brightly colored and fun to watch.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : on Grindelia hisutula |
Nymphalis antiopa is a medium-large butterfly, with a wingspan of 2 ¼ to 4
inches (6-10 cm.). Mourning cloaks are the only large, dark
brown butterfly in local gardens; the Metalmarks and Duskywings (also brown)
are much smaller. Males and females
look basically the same.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : underside |
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| Mourning Cloak : excellent camouflage |
The
undersides of both sets of wings are a dark, rough-appearing brown, edged with
light tan. The wing margins are not
smooth, but jagged. All of this provides
good camouflage in a variety of situations.
Mourning cloaks can virtually disappear on the dark trunks of
trees. But they are equally able to
blend in when perched on local shrubs (see above). They
are particularly difficult to spot in the light and shadow of some of our native
plants. This is a good thing:
camouflage is an important way Mourning Cloaks evade predatory insects
(dragonflies), birds, lizards and others.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : upperside |
In
contrast to the lower side, the upper side of this species is very attractive
and colorful. The main wing color is a
rich chocolate or mahogany brown. The
margins are banded with light tan-yellow, a nice contrast with the brown. The pale margins are bordered inside by a
darker brown band, dotted with pale, iridescent blue-lavender spots. The entire effect is lovely and refined. This butterfly’s common name is said to
describe the butterfly’s appearance: a dark mourning cloak, covering a pale
dress or petticoat [2].
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : note body features |
But
the visual treats don’t stop there. Look
carefully at the close-up above. Admire
the compound eye; no wonder they’re so hard to sneak up on! Note the stout legs, used to grasp and move
around a perch. Photographs allow you to fully appreciate an insect’s intricate
beauty. Nymphalis antiopa
appears to have only two sets of legs.
But look closely to see the short, hairy front leg. This ‘brush foot’ gives the Nymphalidae their common name – Brush-foot
butterflies.
Notice
the stout facial and thorax (mid-section) bristles and the unusual face shape. Mourning cloak adults have an unusual diet
for butterflies: for the most part they eat sap and decaying fruit, although
they will visit early-blooming trees (like willows) or summer-fall blooming
members of the Sunflower family [4]. Like other butterflies, they extract salts
and minerals from mud. Not surprisingly,
Morning Cloaks are not an important pollinator species.
Adult
Mourning Cloaks over-winter as adults. The
Mourning Cloak season begins with the emergence of adults from hibernation in
the spring. In the warm winters of S.
California, emergence can be as early as January; you can see this butterfly in
any month in local preserves and gardens.
But they are most frequently spotted in spring and late summer/fall. Adults live up to 12 months – one of the
longest lifespans of any N. American butterfly [2, 5].
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| Willows (Salix species) : larval food for Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) |
Nymphalis antiopa is native to forests and woodland areas. But it can be found where ever there are trees
that supply its larval food, including local wetlands, riparian woodlands,
parks and neighborhoods. Larval food
trees include willows (Salix
species), aspens and cottonwoods (Populus
species), American elm (Ulmus),
hackberry (Celtis
spp.), hawthorn, wild rose, mulberry, birches (Betula species) and alders (Alnus
species). The frequent occurrence of
these host species explains the widespread appearance of Mourning Cloaks in
wild and urban settings.
Morning
cloaks mate in the spring, but there may be multiple broods (a second
generation) in some areas, including S. California [3, 4]. Males choose a high perch to display to
passing females or fly in search of mates.
Males mate with several females, and there is strong competition for
choice sites. For more details on
courtship behaviors see references 2, 3.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : perched male |
The
males are highly territorial and will fiercely defend their territory from
other males, other butterflies (including the large Swallowtails), hummingbirds
and even humans. We’ve seen them harass
Scrub Jays and even had one head-butt our hand.
That’s quite a butterfly – willing to take on a human!
After
an aerial mating, females lay a cluster of eggs around a host plant twig. Clusters contain small eggs that start pale
yellow-green and mature to black (see reference 6 for a good picture). The female dies after laying her last batch
of eggs.
The
larvae emerge after about 10 days, and will go through five larval stages
(instars) before emerging as fully developed caterpillars. Each instar but the first (which is pale, with a dark head) looks
fairly similar: a spiny, dark caterpillar with a line of red dots down the
back. The larvae have a distinct
appearance: see reference 4 for excellent photos of all stages of development.
The
larvae often remain together through much of their development. Like all caterpillars, they are voracious
eaters. They must be, to grow from a tiny egg to nearly 2 inches long (5th
instar). They’ve been known to defoliate ornamental trees in other areas, but we
haven’t heard of this in S. California.
Let us know if you’ve seen this in S. California. For more on larval behavior see reference 3,
below.
After
the 5th molting, the Mourning Cloak caterpillar pupates (metamorphoses
into adult form). The caterpillar leaves the host plant to search out a safe
place to form a chrysalis, often under an overhang, large branch or other
protected site (see ref. 4 for photos). After
a 10-15 day development within the chrysalis, the adult emerges. In warm areas, adults enter a
hibernation-like state (estivation) in the hottest part of summer, allowing
them to survive the heat.
Mourning
Cloaks are not long-distance migrants, although they may migrate locally in
California, from lower elevation winter sites to higher elevation breeding
sites [7]. Adults over-winter in
protected sites like tree cavities, under loose bark, among dried leaves or other
sheltered places. They emerge from
winter hibernation with the warm weather.
We
hope you’ll look for Mourning Cloaks in your own neighborhood. You likely will
find them this year. Look for the larvae
as well as adults, if you’re lucky enough to have the host plants. And send your photos to iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/home). We’re sure there’s a scientist interested in
studying the yearly fluctuations in butterfly numbers. Your pictures can help provide the data s/he
needs to conduct their study.
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| Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) : in garden |
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- http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/species.php?species=antiopa
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphalis_antiopa
- http://www.naturenorth.com/spring/bug/mcloak/Fmcloak.html
- http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/lepidopt/nymph/mcloak.htm
- http://www.desertusa.com/insects/mourning-cloaks.html
- http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/10920101
- http://butterfly.ucdavis.edu/butterfly/Nymphalis/antiopa
__________________________________________________________________
Like this posting? See
our other insect posts at: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/07/insect-postings-mother-natures-backyard.html
We encourage your comments below.
If you have questions about the Mourning Cloak butterfly or other
gardening topics you can e-mail us at : mothernaturesbackyard10@gmail.com
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