Common Name – Mourning Cloak Butterfly

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family: Nymphalidae

First insect of the week for 2025 is this beautiful butterfly commonly known as a “Mourning Cloak” in the United States, and in Britain it is known as the “Camberwell Beauty.”  Keeping in mind that depending upon where you are in the world, we as biologist typically only use the scientific names of animals, this on being “Nymphalis antiopa.”

Note the unique spelling… “mourning” and not “morning.”  The US common name of this butterfly stems from Scandinavian origins (from folks who likely didn’t see much of this butterfly in Norway and Sweden).  The name is believed to be derived from “a girl who didn’t like her ‘mourning cloak’ and would defiantly show a few inches of her bright colored dress below.”

As caterpillars, they typically feed upon willow plants, American Elm, and Poplars.  The caterpillars live gregariously (in large numbers) in communal silken nests on the host-plant.  The adults feed on sap, ripe/fallen fruits, and the sugary exudate from aphids…rarely seen on flowers.