Watching Insects

Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa)
September 22, 2007

Since March, I’ve been putting out moth bait during the day trying to attract a Mourning Cloak. I’ve been suspecting that at least one visited my bait when I wasn’t there to see it. Today, my luck finally changed and I got a couple of decent photos of the ventral side of a Mourning Cloak. This isn’t one of the better shots, but I decided to post this one because it shows interesting behavior. The butterfly was repeatedly mobbed by yellowjackets trying to monopolize the bait.