Question mark butterfly
The question mark butterfly lives in woods and parks in North America. When it closes its wings, the patterned underside looks just like a dead leaf. On the underside of each back wing there is a little silver mark shaped like a question mark.
How big is it?
How wide are its wings?
How big is Question mark butterfly compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Its name comes from the silver mark under its wing: a curved line and a dot, just like a question mark.
The mother usually lays her eggs on the wrong plants, so the tiny caterpillars must find their own food after hatching.
Its chrysalis takes on the colours of its surroundings, so it is very hard to spot.
Butterflies that hatch in late summer spend the whole winter hiding in sheltered places.
It is a traveller. Some of these butterflies migrate long distances.
Most asked questions about Question mark butterfly
?Why is it called the question mark butterfly?
Because of the small silver mark under its back wing, which looks like a question mark.
?What does the question mark butterfly eat?
It likes rotting fruit, tree sap and dung best, and visits flowers only when there is nothing else.
?How big is the question mark butterfly?
Its wings are about 4,5 to 7,5 centimetres from tip to tip.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polygonia interrogationis
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Polygonia interrogationis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Larry D. Moore. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Monarch butterfly
Peacock butterfly
Blue morpho
Old World swallowtail
Small white
Eastern tiger swallowtail
Samurai wasp
Bull ant
Giant Palouse earthworm
Cinnamon bug
Brown planthopper
Pink-spotted hawk-moth