The first butterflies of the season were seen this week and to celebrate we’re testing your knowledge on the early lifestages of early season butterflies!
Which chrysalis below contains an Eastern Comma?
- Left
- Right
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Click below to reveal the answer to this weeks’ quiz!
The chrysalis on the left is the Eastern Comma! If you look closely, you can see the orange and black spots of the wing as they are getting ready to eclose! The other chrysalis is another early season butterfly - the Mourning Cloak.
Both chrysalises are tan to gray with two rows of spikes but the spike colors differ between the two species. The spikes of the Eastern Comma are usually tan or gray, while the Mourning Cloaks’ spikes are red-tipped. The spikes of the Eastern Comma earned them the name “Hop Merchants”. As caterpillars, they eat hop plants and can be considered minor pests for growers. In the early 1900s, Hops farmers would predict how well their crops would sell based on how golden the chrysalises were. They have two flights in a year and chrysalises can be seen from the end of April to May and again in the fall in August and September.
Mourning Cloaks are one of the longest lived butterflies with a lifespan of 11 to 12 months. Despite their hardy resistance to cold temperatures, experiments from the late 1800s and early 1900s show that some populations of Mourning Cloaks are affected by temperature during metamorphosis. Cold temperatures cause hormonal changes that change their phenotype or the way they look. These changes can include a wider yellow wing border and disappearance of the blue spots. You can see these changes here.
You can read more about this phenomenon from the work of Arthur Shapiro on Californian butterflies and from a more recent paper looking at temperature shock in the related European, Small Tortoiseshell. You can see the comparison in Figure 1 in Markl et al. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.8992.
Eastern Comma pupa by Joanne Russo (iNaturalist)
Mourning Cloak pupa by Joanne Russo (iNaturalist)
Markl, G., Ottmann, S., Haasis, T., Budach, D., Krais, S. and Köhler, H.R., 2022. Thermobiological effects of temperature‐induced color variations in Aglais urticae (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae). Ecology and Evolution, 12(6), p.e8992.
Ready for next weeks’ challenge? Click here!