A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Polygonia comma
Family: Nymphaliade, Subfamily: Nymphalinae. A middle to eastern North America butterfly. WS 4.5-6.4 mm. Coloring variable depending on the season. Late season flyer. Winter form hindwings are reddish-orange. 3 spots in a row on forewing with a bar above the outer most spot. Underside of both form is striped light or dark brown (as shown). Silvery comma mark in the middle of hindwing. Hosts: usually neetle-type plants.
Usually habitat is woods near rivers, ponds and swamp. This was spotted in open meadow with abundant flowers and weeds And an awesome sighting to see this butterfly feeding heartily on small white aster flowers as it usually feeds on sap, rotting fruit or minerals and salts.
First spot ever of this gorgeous butterfly that looks so similar to the Question Mark Butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis). So wonderful to see butterflies this late in the season. (If you watch the video, please turn the sound down. Friday traffic)
Spotted on Oct 12, 2012
Submitted on Oct 13, 2012
2 Comments
To identify, EC has three dots on the upper surface of the forewing while QM has 3 dots and a dash. Scroll down to the third picture in the link below and hover your cursor over the picture to see this feature.
http://rlephoto.com/anglewings/mark_ques...
Making sure my ID is correct. I always get Question Mark Butterfly mixed up with Eastern Comma. Thank you!