Hoary comma
Polygonia gracilis
The hoary comma is a butterfly of the cool northern forests of North America. Its wings have ragged edges, as if someone cut them with wobbly scissors. It sleeps through the winter as a grown-up butterfly.
Lives in
Northern North America, from Alaska across Canada to New England and south in the Rocky Mountains
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
The adults drink tree sap and flower nectar. The caterpillars eat leaves of currant bushes and azaleas.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Hoary comma about 15 km/h (9.3 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It spends the winter resting as an adult butterfly and wakes up in spring.
2
In spring it mates and lays eggs, and new butterflies come out of their chrysalises in midsummer.
3
It lives as far north as Alaska, so it is used to cold places.
you asked
Most asked questions about Hoary comma
?What does the hoary comma eat?
The adults drink tree sap and nectar. The caterpillars eat currant and azalea leaves.
?How does the hoary comma survive winter?
It rests through the winter as a grown-up butterfly and becomes active again in spring.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polygonia gracilis
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- North America
Where the facts come from
- Hoary comma (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 Walter Siegmund (talk). CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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