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Sticker of Green comma
Bug card No. 2055 of 4,939

Green comma

Polygonia faunus
Eats: Nectar and pollenButterfliesForests and woods6 legs

The green comma is a butterfly with very ragged, jagged wing edges. On top its wings are reddish brown with dark borders. Underneath they are grey-brown with greenish spots that look like lichen, and a little silver mark shaped like a C or an L.

Lives in
Northern North America, from Alaska to California and New Mexico and east to New England, in forests and by streams
Wingspan
4.5 to 6.4 cm (1.8 to 2.5 in)
Top speed
about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
Flying, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The butterflies drink sweet liquids. The caterpillars eat willow, birch, alder, currant, nettle and hop leaves.
For real!Photo of Green comma
Picture by Walter Siegmund. CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How wide are its wings?

Green comma wings about 6.4 cm tip to tip (2.5 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
wings as wide as 2 toy building brickscould fly across a whole football pitch in 25 seconds

How big is Green comma compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its wings are about 4.5 to 6.5 centimetres from tip to tip.

2

With its wings closed it looks like a dead leaf with lichen on it.

3

The grown-up butterflies sleep through the winter and fly again in spring.

4

There is only one family of them each year.

5

Its closest cousin is the comma butterfly of Europe.

you asked

Most asked questions about Green comma

?Why is it called the green comma?

Because of the green spots under its wings and a small silver mark shaped like a comma or a C.

?Where does the green comma live?

In northern North America, mostly in forests and mountain woods near streams.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Polygonia faunus
Group
Butterflies
Family
Nymphalidae
Classification
Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Polygonia faunus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Walter Siegmund. CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.

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More from the same group: Butterflies

Also at home here: Forests and woods

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