One thing that I have discovered through the years is that when people find out you are an entomologist, there is a good chance you will get asked a question about an insect. Many times the question relates to a problem insect, and the person wants to know what it is and what to do about it.

But sometimes people are just curious about an insect they have seen. That was the reason I was asked about an insect recently.

A friend of mine called and wanted to know if I had any of those snoopy butterflies around my house this fall. I had never heard of butterflies with the name “snoopy,” so I asked what they looked like. I was told the butterflies he had seen were a dark brownish color and a little bit smaller than a monarch. That information eliminated a number of butterflies but still left quite a few possibilities.

So my next question was, “Where did you see these butterflies?” The answer was fluttering around the eaves of his house. Occasionally, one of these butterflies would land and appear to crawl along the surface and then flutter farther and land again. He interpreted that behavior as snooping around, thus his name for the insect.

I was still not prepared to venture a guess as to what the butterfly might be, so I asked if he could get a picture of the butterfly or, better yet, capture a specimen for me. He did get a photo, and the butterfly turned out to be what is known as the mourning cloak.

Now with a positive identification, the behavior my friend observed was probably the butterfly searching for a site to spend the winter. The mourning cloak is an unusual species of butterfly for several reasons.

First, it is one of the few butterfly species that spend the winter in the adult stage. In the fall, adults seek out protected places in which to hibernate during the cold months. Commonly, such a site would be under the bark of a tree. But on occasion, a crack or crevice in a house or barn will do the job.

The mourning cloak is also one of the longest-living butterflies. Adults might live for almost a year. It is also one of the first butterflies that we see in the spring. That’s because the adults emerge from their wintering sites during the first warm days to seek mates and lay eggs for the upcoming summer season.

These butterflies feed on tree sap as adults. Certainly being a sap feeder is a matter of survival because other sources of liquid food frequently used by butterflies, such as flower nectar, are limited in the early spring.

Mourning cloaks lay their eggs on a number of hardwood trees, including oaks, elms and willows. Their caterpillars are sometimes called spiny oak worms because they have spines on their bodies and commonly feed on oak. The caterpillars are black in color with a red dot on each body segment.

Mourning cloaks are distributed throughout the world. They are among the most easily identified species because their brownish-black wings have a single row of blue spots and yellow margins. No other butterflies have a similar color pattern.

The scientific name for this butterfly is Nymphalis antiopa. The common name – mourning cloak – is based on its color pattern. That pattern apparently reminded observers of the cloak which mourners attending funerals in ancient England sometimes wore. Thus it was dubbed the mourning cloak, much the same way my friend called it a “snoopy butterfly.”

Another common name for this species is the Camberwell beauty. That is because one of the first recorded sightings of the butterfly was in England, near the city of Camberwell.

I doubt if snoopy butterfly will catch on as a common name for this insect. However, you have to admit that snoopy is descriptive of a butterfly fluttering around and looking for a snug place to spend the cold, winter months.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Tom Turpin may write to him in care of this publication.