Mystery - Polygonia progne

Moved

… Jason D. Roberts, 28 June, 2008 - 7:20pm

Polygonia progne

Hi all, This is indeed Polygonia progne. The pattern underneith is made up of parallel lines and fairly even, while in P. comma it is more irregular and broken looking, and usually more varied and warm in color. The missing spot above is not 100% constant, but it is characteristic of P. progne. The silver spot on the lower hind wing is pointed at both ends on yours, forming an 'L' shape, while on P. comma it is hooked or swollen at the tips. P. interrogationis is perhaps a bit more like P. comma, but it has the silver spot broken, and looks distinctly different from your photo. None of the rest have this dark form with a band of tiny pale spot in a near black border on the hind wing.

… David J. Ferguson, 20 September, 2007 - 12:22pm

Moved

Moved from Eastern Comma.

… David Kleiman, 10 July, 2007 - 8:22am

Gray Comma

I'm still learning, too, but note the upper HW is lacking a central (third) dark spot which is present in eastern (and other) commas in their light form. The eastern's I've seen in MN have a lot more color underneath, too, where this one was very plain.

The upper HW for easterns is usually dark in summer. I just took some photos this week of what I think are Easterns, but they wouldn't fold their wings so I couldn't be sure. Their upper HWs were very dark (summer form).

… M Whalen, 10 July, 2007 - 1:28am

oops

excellent call on the spot pattern! Now I'm not exactly sure what to do with this image. Looking at my blurred picture of the butterfly's closed wings, the only distinguishing mark seems to be the large orange spot on the upper wing, but that does not match the images of the Gray Comma. I'll move this to the Polygonia section until we can figure this one out. Thanks again!

… David Kleiman, 10 July, 2007 - 8:22am

A good website

for side-by-side comparisons of several Polygonia spp.:
NABA-MA .

… Hartmut Wisch, 10 July, 2007 - 9:24am

Looks like an Eastern Comma,

somewhat worn, first brood. See the guide pages for a start, also photos in Evans ((1)).

… Hartmut Wisch, 7 July, 2007 - 11:51pm

I'm off my game

Own the Evans guide and I didn't bother to check it. Based on that and the helpful comments here, I agree with you that this is an Eastern Comma. I will leave it in ID request for a while longer to see if anyone can confirm this.

Thanks for your help!

… David Kleiman, 8 July, 2007 - 12:04am