River talk

The first of the spring butterflies

By SCOTT RANDO

Posted 4/19/23

You might have gone out into the woods on a spring birding trip, or maybe to listen for spring peepers or wood frogs.

As far as insects you could have observed, you might have run across a hatch …

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River talk

The first of the spring butterflies

RR photos by Scott Rando

This mourning cloak was seen early in April near my home, about the same time the wood frogs started to call. This species has blue spots, as do some other species of butterflies; what sets the mourning cloak apart from the other species is the yellow fringe on the trailing edge of the wings. Many mourning cloaks, like this one, have slightly tattered wings. ..In the spring, look for the butterflies along sunny edges of forest or along trails. They also might be sipping sap from holes in trees.

RR photos by Scott Rando

The red-spotted purple and the mourning cloak are about the same size, and both can be seen during mid-to-late summer. The red-spotted purple has more of a blue hue toward the rear portion of the dorsal side of the wings. Like the mourning cloak, it has blue spots near the fringe, but these are a lighter-blue hue. The ventral side of the red-spotted purple includes many orange-red spots; they can be seen if the red-spotted purple has its wings folded inward.

RR photos by Scott Rando

This spicebush swallowtail, as well as the black swallowtail and some dark-colored tiger swallowtails (the females), might have spot patterns that make them resemble mourning cloaks from a distance, but a closer inspection will show that all swallowtails have spots lining the rear fringe of the wing. The mourning cloak has solid-yellow fringe. Also, all the swallowtail species have a tail on each hindwing trailing edge. The mourning cloak has a small triangular bump on each trailing edge of the hindwing.

Posted Wednesday, April 19, 2023 12:45 pm

River talk

Upcoming bird activities

By SCOTT RANDO

You might have gone out into the woods on a spring birding trip, or maybe to listen for spring peepers or wood frogs.

As far as insects you could have observed, you might have run across a hatch of stoneflies near a river or lake. The occasional small moth might be spotted.

Then, out of nowhere, appears a fairly sizable butterfly, slightly smaller than a swallowtail. If you can catch sight of it as it perches on a tree or on the ground, it may even look like a swallowtail, black with some spots on the wings.

A closer look might reveal some differences, though. You then realize you don’t see any swallowtails flying this early in the spring season; you wonder why this butterfly is flying this early in the spring in the first place.

You have likely seen one of the first butterflies to appear in the spring—the mourning cloak.

The mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) is a large butterfly that is seen early in the spring because it is one of the few butterflies that overwinters as an adult. It spends the winter in its hibernaculum, which could be a void under the bark or a cavity of a tree. They might even venture out in the open during mild winter days.

A mourning cloak has dark red or brown wings, with a yellow margin on the trailing edges of both fore and hind wings. Forward of the yellow margin is a row of blue spots that spans the width of its wings.

A mourning cloak has a wingspan of about four inches.

The mourning cloaks seen in spring mate and lay eggs during April and May. The new hatch of mourning cloaks emerge as butterflies later in the summer; these butterflies will survive to overwinter and start the process anew during the following spring.

Mourning cloaks are among the longest living butterflies in the region; they will live almost an entire year.

You might spot some of the new butterflies flying around during part of the summer at the same time as other species of butterflies. Some of the species might have a similar appearance to the mourning cloak; some of those species are shown in this week’s column.