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By Harvey Thommasen, with Photography by Mike Wigle On a warm, spring morning I was walking down the path towards the junction of the Atnarko and Talchako Rivers, when I came across a butterfly spectacle. Congregated around a broken alder sapling were a colourful bouquet of a dozen or so butterflies. A few were busy eagerly lapping up sap brought out from the roots by the warming sun; a few were basking at the base of the oozing alder, perhaps waiting for a turn to feed, and a few others were fluttering around impatiently looking for a spot to land, so they too could enjoy the feast.
The Anglewing is a fast, erratic flying, medium-sized (2-2.5inches) orange-brown butterfly. When landing it will suddenly drop to the ground, fold its wings tightly like a book with the undersides acting like the cover. If you look away for a second and then look back to the ground, you may have difficulty locating the butterfly on the leaf-littered ground. It seems so bright and colorful in the air, but once landed you see it is perfectly camouflaged. The wing margins are ragged like the jagged edges of a leaf, and the exposed underside of the wings is critically patterned in mottled shades of brown and gray speckles and zigzags that break up the outline of the wings. The forewings are moved far forward, hiding the antennae between them for added camouflage effect. At rest, this butterfly looks amazingly like a dried out leaf, chunk of tree bark, or even a brown spruce conifer cone. A noticeable silver mark on the center of the hindwing is also present which gives rise to the other common name for this butterfly – the Comma Butterfly.
Typically, the males will perch on twigs of shrubs and small trees at the edge of a clearing, awaiting passing females from about 1 p.m. to late afternoon. They aggressively "attack" birds, insects, and even people that approach their perches. When a female butterfly comes into view the male instantly goes to greet her. More often than not, the two begin spiralling out of sight in among the branches of a large spruce tree – presumably this activity has something to do with the mating ritual. After mating takes places, the female Anglewing lays her green eggs, usually singly on the underside of host leaves. Emerging larvae spend the next few months eating leaves of their host plants and can often be found resting on the underside of the leaves or on the stems. Each Anglewing caterpillar has its own preferred host plant. The Oreas Anglewing caterpillars feed mainly on gooseberries and currents (Ribes spp), the Green Anglewing caterpillars feed mainly on willow, birch and alder, and the Golden Anglewing caterpillars feed on stinging nettles (Urtica spp). The fully-grown caterpillars are heavily spined. Color ranges from brown to yellowish-orange. They are approximately 2.5 cm long. If one tumbles off a branch into the stream, you can bet that it won’t last long before it is snapped up by a trout. After pupation, a new generation of Anglewing adults appears from about July and can be seen through summer and early fall. Adult Anglewings rarely visit flowers, instead they are more likely to be seen feeding on tree sap, fermenting fruit, rotting carrion or dung, or sipping minerals from edges of mud puddles. When cold days of fall arrive, the adults find a good hibernating spot and wait for spring to arrive so that mating can take place and the life cycle can be started once again. A Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) is a magnificent looking moderately large butterfly, easily recognized by its purplish-black wings with broad whitish-yellow border edged inwardly with tiny bright blue spots. No other coastal butterfly has this distinctive color pattern. The underside pattern of mottled grays serves as camouflage. When settled with wings folded closed and up over its back, this butterfly, like the Anglewing, closely resembles a dead leaf. It is believed that this butterfly got its name from its somber color, which is said to resemble a dark funeral shawl.
In Europe, the Mourning Cloak, is also known as the Camberwell Beauty, and it is a greatly prizes species among butterfly collectors. Here in our coastal valleys of the Pacific Northwest, this long lived, large (3.24-4" wingspan) black butterfly is relatively common and not so appreciated. Its flight pattern is described as being a few rapid flaps alternating with strong glides. The Comma Tortoise Shell (Nymphalis vau-album) is another early spring butterfly I look for whenever I see stinging nettle plants along a fishing trail. Though it looks a lot like a large Anglewing butterfly, the Comma Tortoise Shell is actually more closely related to the Mourning Cloak . The wingspan is about three inches, wing margins are irregular, color is a mottled (tortoise shell brown), and there is a white blotch along the leading margin on the upperside of the hindwings. Like the Anglewing, the undersurface is leaflike. The butterflies of spring, like the singing birds in the forest canopy, are part of what makes fishing such an enjoyable experience. Stop and watch them next time you encounter them on the stream. The trout will wait. |
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The small powdery blue butterflies were Spring Azures, (Celastrina argiolus); the beautiful purplish-black butterfly was a Mourning Cloak (Nymphalis antiopa). The small white colored flashy orange wingtips was a Sara’s Orange Tip (Anthocharis sara), and the two kinds of brown butterflies I saw were Anglewing (Polygonia oreas) and a Common Tortoise Shell (also known as Compton’s Tortoise shell). These are the butterflies of spring on the Central Coast of British Columbia, and I suspect throughout much of the Pacific Northwest. They are worth getting to know, not because a fly fisherman is ever likely to try and match the butterfly hatch, but because they are companions in nature, who we can expect to encounter as we search for spring trout. And they serve as a highly visual signal that the season has warmed to a point where large hatches of other insects will occur.
Anglewings are commonly seen along the streams and valley bottoms throughout the Pacific Northwest. One generation is produced each year. The adults hibernate over winter in the crevices of bark or under logs. On warm sunny days in April, the adults come out to search for a mate and will be busy with this over the next few months.
