New Jersey Butterfly Club

Mourning Cloak

Nymphalis antiopa

Identification: Medium—3.0". Above: FW and HW very dark, velvety brown with wide, pale-yellow border on both wings, and a row of small blue spots inside the yellow border. Below: Finely striated dark brown, with grayish-yellow border along both wings. Distinctive flap-and-glide flight.

NJ Status and Distribution: Resident. Fairly common and widespread throughout.

Habitat: Deciduous woodland. Often encountered along trails and on bare ground and dirt roads.

Flight Period: One brood. In North Jersey overwintering adults emerge in March (sometimes in February), mate, lay eggs, and die. Their offspring emerge in early July and fly into December, sometimes with a pause for aestivation in the heat of summer. In South Jersey, may be seen every month of the year. Extreme dates: North Jersey 2/16—12/16; South Jersey 1/4—12/25.

Caterpillar Food Plants: A wide variety of broadleaf trees, including willows (Salix); aspens, poplars, and cottonwoods (Populus); elms (Ulmus); birches (Betula); and hackberry (Celtis).

Overwintering Stage: Adult.

Good Locations: Delaware Water Gap NRA, Wildcat Ridge WMA, Whittingham WMA, Kittatinny Valley SP, Belleplain SF.

Comments: After a long winter of butterfly fasting that North Jersey butterfliers have to endure, it is exciting to see the first Mourning Cloak flapping and gliding along a forest trail. This and Eastern Comma are usually the first species seen in North Jersey.