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Home > Blogs > Birds and Butterflies > Archives > 2009 > October > 22 > Entry
A Simple Discovery
By Katy Malcolm
It is very difficult not to assume that the end of summer also means the end of butterflies. While walking around Possum Creek MetroPark this past Wednesday, I found a large number of butterflies still fluttering around the flowers. As a brand-new butterfly observer, it was a wonderful surprise. I had always assumed the butterflies would be absent by late October. My sightings included orange sulfurs, pearl crescents, and one mourning cloak. I went back to my notes from earlier in the year and found that it is not uncommon for several species of butterfly to persist into November. Sometimes you just have to see something for yourself before it sticks in your brain! Mourning cloaks usually vanish sometime in October, when they start hibernation. Since they over winter as adults, this butterfly can occasionally be seen flying around on sunny winter days. Pearl crescents over winter as larvae. Orange sulfurs overwinter as a chrysalis. I have managed to see three different types of butterfly with three very different strategies for facing the cold weather! What a fun thing to think about!
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