I would make a chart of our life,
know how its shores trend,
that butterflies reappear and when,
know why just this circle of creatures
completes the world.
Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852
The same warm and placid day
calls out men and butterflies.
March 28, 1858
March 20. On the warm, dry cliff, looking south over Beaver Pond, I was surprised to see a large butterfly, black with buff-edged wings, so tender a creature to be out so early, and, when alighted, opening and shutting its wings. What does it do these frosty nights? Its chrysalis must have hung in some sunny nook of the rocks. Born to be food for some early bird. March 20, 1853
March 21. Saw two more of those large black and buff butterflies. The same degree of heat brings them out everywhere. March 21, 1853
March 22. The phenomena of an average March are increasing warmth, melting the snow and ice and, gradually, the frost in the ground . . . Many insects and worms come forth and are active . . . Vanessa Antiopa out 29th. March 22, 1860
March 28. At Lee's Cliff and this side, I see half a dozen buff-edged butterflies (Vanessa Antiopa) and pick up three dead or dying, two together, the edges of their wings gone. Several are fluttering over the dry rock debris under the cliff, in whose crevices probably they have wintered. Two of the three I pick up are not dead, though they will not fly. Verily their day is a short one. What has checked their frail life? Within, the buff edge is black with bright sky-blue spots, and the main part within is a purplish brown. Those little oblong spots on the black ground are light as you look directly down on them, but from one side they vary through violet to a crystalline rose-purple . . . The broad buff edge of the Vanessa Antiopa's wings harmonizes with the russet ground it flutters over, and as it stands concealed in the winter, with its wings folded above its back, in a cleft in the rocks, the gray-brown under side of its wings prevents its being distinguished from the rocks themselves. March 28, 1857
March 28. In the sunny epigaea wood I start up two Vanessa Antiopa, which flutter about over the dry leaves before, and are evidently attracted toward me, settling at last within a few feet. The same warm and placid day calls out men and butterflies. March 28, 1858
April 1. See the first bee of the season on the railroad causeway, also a small red butterfly and, later, a large dark one with buff-edged wings. April 1, 1852
April 2. I am tempted to stretch myself on the bare ground above the Cliff, to feel its warmth in my back, and smell the earth and the dry leaves. I see and hear flies and bees about. A large buff-edged butterfly flutters by along the edge of the Cliff, — Vanessa antiopa. Though so little of the earth is bared, this frail creature has been warmed to life again. April 2, 1856
April 5. As we ride along to Green's, we see many of the large butterfly, dark with buff-edged wings, and also small reddish ones, in the dry sprout-lands. The same warm and pleasant weather brings them out to flutter along the roadside in sprout-lands, that does the hawks to sail along the meadow-side and over the wood . . . You may see anything now — the buff-edged butterfly and many hawks — along the meadow; and hark! while I write down this field note, the shrill peep of the hylodes is borne to me from afar through the woods. April 5, 1854
April 9. You see the buff-edged . . . in warm, sunny southern exposures on the edge of woods or sides of rocky hills and cliffs, above dry leaves and twigs, where the wood has been lately cut and there are many dry leaves and twigs about. April 9, 1853
April 9. The great butterflies, black with buff-edged wings, are fluttering about, and flies are buzzing over this rock. April 9, 1856
April 16. The orange-copper vanessa, middle-sized, is out, and a great many of the large buff-edged are fluttering over the leaves in wood-paths this warm afternoon. I am obliged to carry my great coat on my arm. April 16, 1855
April 17. It is unexpectedly very warm on lee side of hilltop just laid bare and covered with dry leaves and twigs. See my first Vanessa Antiopa. April 17, 1860
April 21. See the Vanessa Antiopa. C. has seen it a week or so. April 21, 1859
May 4. From time to time have seen the large Vanessa Antiopa resting on the black willows, like a leaf still adhering. May 4, 1858.
June 14. I see a black caterpillar on the black willows nowadays with red spots. June 14, 1854
July 5. For some days I have seen great numbers of blackish spiny caterpillars stripping the black willows, some full-grown on June 30th and some now not more than three quarters of an inch long. When looking at a blackbird's nest I pricked my hand smartly on them several times; in fact the nest was pretty well protected by this chevaux-de-frise. Are they the caterpillars of the Vanessa Antiopa? Yes; according to Harris's description, they are. July 5, 1857
October 1. Water was prepared for ice, and C. saw the first Vanessa Antiopa since spring. October 1, 1860.
November 1. A perfect Indian-summer day, and wonderfully warm. 72+ at 1 P. M. and probably warmer at two. The butterflies are out again, - probably some new broods. I see the common yellow and two Vanessa Antiopa, and yellow-winged grasshoppers with blackish edges. November 1, 1860
A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, the Buff-edged Butterfly
A Book of Seasons, by Henry Thoreau
"A book, each page written in its own season,
out-of-doors, in its own locality."
~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025
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