Description
The beautiful and elegant mourning cloak can not be mistaken for any other butterflies in the world. With its dark and black violet color on the top of the wings and the blue and yellow colours along the edge of the wings the mourning cloak has a quite unique look.
The mourning cloak is a rare summer guest in Denmark, and it arrives from its hibernation in March. It is more common in Sweden and in Finland though, and it lives in bright and moist forests and on meadows with willows and birchs, the preferred plants to eat.
The mourning cloak is a very curious butterfly, and if you are lucky to meet it, it will very likely inspect you to see if there is anything edible nearby. It is moreover very trustful, and we can often find it sitting on a stone in the sun until late in the autumn.
The mourning cloak is dependent on warmth to produce its offspring. Its caterpillar has a relatively long time of development of roughly 10 weeks, and in cool summers the caterpillars simply can’t complete their development, and thus the butterfly is very sensitive to cold.
The mourning cloak hibernates in hollow trees, and it can live in a height of 2000 meters.