Warm weather wakes up butterflies on Fermilab campus

This warm weekend April 7th and 8th definitely brought out the butterflies. I saw a few which hibernate as adults, a Mourning Cloak and a Comma. One can find those in the woods and around woods edges. Question Marks, which also hibernate as adult butterflies and look very much like Commas are probably also active now, but I did not see any yet. A surprise over the weekend was to see several American Painted Ladies. These migrate up from the South, a bit like Monarchs but probably in a less organized fashion. Also, Cabbage Whites (the "Dandelion" of butterflies--a European import that is very widespread) are already emerging and flying around on site.

Tom Peterson


(Tom Peterson started out as an amateur lepidopterist and ended up a professional engineer and an internationally recognized expert in the cryogenics science of the very cold. But he still watches butterflies.)


Butterflies at Fermilab