Megan's Nature Nook
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Earlier this summer, Tony came to visit me at the zoo and spotted a caterpillar hanging on the rock wall in a “J” formation. When you see a caterpillar in the “J” it means that it will be transforming into its chrysalis within the next 24 hours. This spiky caterpillar wasn’t one that we were familiar with, so we did some searching and found out that it was a Mourning Cloak caterpillar. As I was researching Mourning Cloaks, I found some interesting information about these butterflies! Mourning Cloak Butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa) can be found throughout the United States and most of Canada down to central Mexico. They’re not a very common species but can be seen throughout the warmer months. Mourning Cloak butterflies have a wingspan of 3-4 inches. Wings are dark, chocolate brown in the middle, with a yellow/cream color on the boarder. The wings are adorned with blue spots just inside the yellow edging of the wings. Both the fore and hind wings have rough edges with protruding parts of the wing. Caterpillars are black with spikes all over the body. They have light speckles throughout the body and rusty red spots along the back. Their lifecycle is similar to other butterflies. Adults mate in the spring and female butterflies lay eggs on host plants which include willow, cottonwood, aspen, birch, elm, hackberry, and other species of trees. They lay multiple eggs at a time, circling twigs of the plant. When the eggs hatch out after a few days to a few weeks, the caterpillars live in a communal web and feed on the plants. After three to four weeks of feeding and growing, it is time for the caterpillars to transform into a chrysalis where their metamorphosis into a butterfly will happen. They usually pupate and transform into butterflies in June or July. Adult butterflies feed on tree sap, fruit (especially rotting), and occasionally flower nectar. They’ll feed briefly after emerging from their chrysalis and then estivate until fall when they reemerge and feed to store energy for their winter hibernation. Estivation is when an animal spends a hot or dry period in extended dormancy. Some adults may migrate south to warmer weather in the fall instead of hibernating.
Mourning Cloak butterflies are a special species because they overwinter as adults. Most insects overwinter as eggs or larvae. Because of this, they’re one of the last butterflies we see in the fall, and one of the first we see in the spring. As temperatures cool in the fall, they find a protected area under bark, in a log, or a crevice of a building where they will spend the winter until temperatures reach about 60 degrees in the spring and they become active again. Then the cycle will start again, egg, caterpillar, butterfly. Mourning Cloak butterflies can live as long as 10 - 11 months, most butterfly species are a few weeks to a few months so they may be the longest-lived butterfly!
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