Hackberry Butterflies Galore!
Swarms – hundreds – thousands? – of Hackberry Emperor butterflies have graced our part of Clayton County the past few days. The tiny, 2-inch creatures, speckled with brown, white, and black, dot the gravel road, flit around the yard, and sip on the juice from moldy grapes in the compost pile.
Unlike many butterflies, the seldom nectar on flowers. On the gravel road, they apparently find minerals they need. Instead, they might perch on your skin to feast on traces of salt in your sweat. And – yuck – a favorite hackberry buffet is feeding on who-knows-what in bird droppings and animal feces.
There’s been an irruption of Hackberry Emperor butterflies – named for the hackberry tree leaves that their caterpillars feed on. Why the proliferation? Why now? Entomologists can’t say for sure. A mild winter may have allowed more of last year’s caterpillars to survive in the hackberry leaf litter on the ground. Then these larvae crawled back up to their favorite hackberry trees to munch on leaves, even defoliating some branches.
Fat and ready to metamorphose, the caterpillars formed pupas (chrysalises) on handy surfaces. Our neighbor found dozens on the paddleboards in a trailer near the Turkey River. The green, inch-long pupas also were attached under the eaves of a wooden shed, under a picnic table, and underneath hackberry leaves.
When they emerge, the adults will lay a cluster of eggs, then die after a few days. But their caterpillar offspring will hatch and start munching hackberry leaves again.
Later in the summer, instead of forming a pupa, the caterpillars will burrow into leaf litter to over-winter. If they find a cozy spot, we may see another spectacle next spring.
I’m proud to be part of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. We share a love of Iowa - and the goal of connecting our people and our land.
Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights
Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll
Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines
Stephanie Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston
Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake
Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley
Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County
Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji
Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames
Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines
Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa
Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla
Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines
Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo
Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames
Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey
Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa
Darcy Maulsby: Keepin’ It Rural, Lake City
Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar
Wini Moranville, Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines
Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines
Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines
John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines
Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines
Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.
Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Urbandale
Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines
Larry Stone, Listening to the Land, Elkader
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona
Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona
Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County
Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport
Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines
Fascinating. The wonder of life.
Thanks for the information! I was on the Wapsi Friday and there were thousands of these butterflies on the sandbars. Before I could look them up I read your article and there was the answer.