Mourning Cloak

I've decided that it might be nice to add some photos of the other visitors to my butterfly garden. I'll try to keep these in order of their visit but no promises. I've been taking photos of them all summer and adding them to my 365 Project so I may as well add them here.

June 13, 2010: Mourning Cloak

I went to the cemetery to take photos with a few people from my photography group. After the cemetery my hubby wanted me to go garage sale-ing with him. Right before we were leaving he yelled at me to bring my camera because there was a butterfly in the yard. A NEW one as he called it. I came out to find this beauty sitting on one of my ceramic shoe planters in the flower bed. I searched the Internet to find out what it was and what its host plants are, meaning what it lays its eggs on.

These butterflies lay eggs in clusters around twigs of their favored food plants, in Europe, generally Grey Willow (Salix cinerea) and in North America, generally Black Willow (Salix nigra) but also other willow species, as well as poplar, elm, birch, and hackberry. The larvae feed gregariously, and are black and spiny, with fine white speckles, and a row of red spots running down the back. They disperse to pupate and emerge after about three weeks. Soon after emergence, they will disperse further from their breeding grounds in order to find food (sometimes nectar, but more commonly tree sap) to build up fat stores for hibernation, and will often enter parks and gardens to do so. They are single-brooded and hibernate as adults.