''Polygonia comma'', the eastern comma, is a North American

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

in the family Nymphalidae, subfamily

Nymphalinae The Nymphalinae are a subfamily of brush-footed butterflies (family Nymphalidae). Sometimes, the subfamilies Limenitidinae, and Biblidinae are included here as subordinate tribe(s), while the tribe Melitaeini is occasionally regarded as a distinc ...

Description

Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma), Chippewa Co

This butterfly is seasonally variable. The upperside of the summer form's hindwings are all black, whereas the winter forms hindwings are reddish orange. The underside of both forms is striped with dark and light brown. There is a silvery comma mark in the middle of the hindwing in both forms. Its wingspan is .

Habitat

The eastern comma may be spotted in woods near rivers, ponds, marshes, swamps, and other water sources.

Nectar plants

This butterfly seldom visits flowers, but rather feeds on sap, rotting fruit, salts and minerals from

puddling A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid on a surface. Puddle or Puddles may also refer to: * Puddle, Cornwall, hamlet in England * ''Puddle'' (video game) * Puddle (M. C. Escher), a woodcut by M. C. Escher * Weld puddle, a crucial part of the ...

, and dung.

Host plants

Caterpillars feed on paper birch (''

Betula papyrifera ''Betula papyrifera'' (paper birch, also known as (American) white birch and canoe birch) is a short-lived species of birch native to northern North America. Paper birch is named for the tree's thin white bark, which often peels in paper like ...

''), false nettle ('' Boehmeria cylindrica''), hackberry (''

Celtis occidentalis ''Celtis occidentalis'', commonly known as the common hackberry, is a large deciduous tree native to North America. It is also known as the nettletree, sugarberry, beaverwood, northern hackberry, and American hackberry. It is a moderately long-l ...

''), hops ('' Humulus''), wood nettle ('' Laportea canadensis''), currants and gooseberries ('' Ribes'' spp.), basswood (''

Tilia americana ''Tilia americana'' is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae, native to eastern North America, from southeast Manitoba east to New Brunswick, southwest to northeast Oklahoma, southeast to South Carolina, and west along the Niobrara River to ...

''), American elm ('' Ulmus americana''), nettle (''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to ''Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food f ...

''), and clearweed (''

Pilea pumila ''Pilea pumila'', commonly known as clearweed, Canadian clearweed, coolwort or richweed, is an herbaceous plant in the nettle family (Urticaceae). It is native to Asia and eastern North America, where it is broadly distributed. This plant is mos ...

'').

Life cycle

The green eggs are laid singly or in stacks under host plant leaves and stems. The spiny larva varies in color from pale green to yellow to white and to even black. The solitary larva feeds on leaves at night. Older larvae construct daytime leaf shelters by pulling a single leaf together with silk. The chrysalis is brown and covered with spines. Winter-form adults overwinter;Scott, J. A. (1999)
Hibernal diapause of North American Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea.
''Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera'' 18(3):171-200. some will also migrate south for the winter.

Similar species

The dark form of comma is frequently confused with the dark form of the

question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used ques ...

(''P. interrogationis''), but the two can readily be distinguished by the shape of the comma mark on the underside. The pale form is easily confused with the satyr comma (''P. satyrus''), which usually occurs north and west of the eastern comma's range. They can be distinguished by the upperside color, which is orange brown in the comma and tawny yellowish brown in ''P. satyrus''; by the underside pattern, which tends to be mottled in the comma but appears to be more longitudinally streaked in ''P. satyrus''; and by the row of pale submarginal spots on the hindwing upperside, which tend to be separate and surrounded by dark shading in comma, but are larger and tend to run together into a pale band in ''P. satyrus''.

References

Eastern Comma
Butterflies of Canada

External links

on the UF /

IFAS IFAS may refer: * Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences * Integrated Fixed-Film Activated Sludge, a sewage treatment process * International French adjectival system In rock climbing, mountaineering, and other climbing disciplines, clim ...

Featured Creatures Web site {{DEFAULTSORT:Polygonia comma Butterflies of North America Taxa named by Thaddeus William Harris Butterflies described in 1842 Nymphalini