There are a lot of fallen leaves scattered all about my neighborhood and at first I thought this butterfly was merely one of them. Then it opened its wings, revealing its inner beauty. Wow!
I am pretty sure this is a Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis), though there is also a chance that it might be an Eastern Comma butterfly (Polygonia comma). Yes, there are butterflies named after punctuation marks.
How do you tell them apart? Well. there is a little white marking on the wings and if it has a single part, it’s a comma, and if it has two parts, it’s a question mark. My challenge in this case was that the marking was not very distinctive. I looked through a lot of material and photos on the internet and the wing shape and coloration started to push me toward the Question Mark, but I still had questions. I came across a posting by TrekOhio.com that illustrated the differences in the spots on the inner wings and I convinced myself the spots in the second photo look like those of a Question Mark.
Whatever the case, the butterfly’s resemblance to a fallen leaf and its beautiful orange color are reminders to me that autumn is surely here, my favorite time of the year.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
This is a gem, and the information about how to identify it really helpful. I’ve had photos of a dry leaf look-alike in my files for months. Perhaps it’s a flying punctuation mark. I’m really fond of the white legs, too, although I note they look brown in the second photo. Tricks of light, perhaps.
Thanks. It was the same butterfly in both shots, but there was some backlighting in one of the images, which may account for some of the perceived color shift.
Gorgeous butterfly, it has such a presence standing up tall and proud.
Excellent shots, Mike, and good deduction process. It is indeed a winter form Question Mark, and as you say, that top spot or bar isn’t present on the upper side of the Eastern Comma. The white “?” Is usually pretty clear but not too surprising for that white dot to get damaged rustling around in the leaves.
Thanks, Joe, for the confirmation. In this posting I did my thinking out loud about my identification woes. It’s so easy for me to want to seize on a single characteristic and ignore the others.
So beautiful. I love the shape of the wings, as if designed by Leonardo. Great shots.
Thanks. I especially love the contrast between the bright interior colors and the drab exterior.
Beautiful images 🙂 It’s definitely the Question Mark! Commas have quite a lot of marbled patterning to the underside of the wing.
Thanks, Sarah. I think I recently shot a Comma too, so it might be fun to post an image to show the difference.
I want to photograph more of our whites to show comparisons and how beautiful they are seen up close! They’re often thought quite boring but they’re far from plain when you actually get to see the details and flashes of iridescent yellows and greens 😀
[…] long ago I did a posting that featured a Question Mark butterfly, a species that closely resembles this one, but the relatively clear white marking on the hind […]