Mourning Cloak, in its White Petticoats

In which my big sister says Hello.

I met a very friendly butterfly in the Scotia Barrens on this morning. This beauty is a mourning cloak. If you have ever seen one, it is unmistakable. You will see a dark medium-sized butterfly with white at the ends of its wings, and a row of blue to blue-purple dots just inside the white.

Its scientific name is Nymphalis antiopa, and it is known as mourning cloak in the U.S. but as the Camberwell beauty in England. Older names for this butterfly include the grand surprise and white petticoat (for that white frilly part). They are powerful fliers and are often found outside their range. They have a lifespan of 11 to 12 months, which is a long time for a butterfly.

These are very hardy butterflies and often the first ones we see here in springtime. I have been seeing LOTS of them here, almost every day, in fact, but none as friendly as this one. It allowed me to get quite close, within just a few feet.

"Hello, Barb," I whispered, as I knelt down beside it. As though to pray. And I leaned forward and took just one more tiny step to get a shot of the butterfly head-on. It was a shot I never got because suddenly the butterfly vanished into thin air. It was just GONE. It had disappeared back from whence it came and I never even saw it go!

Here's Dolly Parton: Love Is Like a Butterfly.