Morning cloak butterfly


 The morning cloak butterfly is native to both North America and Eurasia.  It is unusual for a butterfly species to be native in both areas.  An even more unusual fact is that morning cloaks are known as the longest-lasting butterfly (adult), often making it to a ripe old age of 10 months, some even making it up to a year.  Even monarch butterflies do not live this long.

As larvae, they feed on willow, elm, birch, and a few other deciduous trees.  Adults, like most butterflies, will visit flowers to obtain nectar.  Another remarkable thing about this butterfly is that it also gleans nutrients from sap, favouring maple, popular, oak, and birch.  It is also a puddler, a term referring to the tendency of this butterfly to spend time on the ground collecting moisture and salt from damp soil, puddles, carrion, and rotting vegetation.  The broad range of adult food sources is one of the reasons the butterfly lives so long.

I photographed this individual last year in April, about a month from now.  It was one of the first butterflies I saw of the season.  The fact it was not a pristine individual makes me wonder how long it had emerged for.

After the larvae mature they hide in deep crevices to pupate and remain there until early spring the following year.  Then, once they emerge, they begin the business of searching for food and mating. 

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com

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