Southern comma
Polygonia egea
The southern comma is a butterfly from southern Europe with jagged wing edges. Under each back wing it has a little white mark shaped like a hook or the letter J.
Lives in
Southern Europe, Turkey and the Caucasus
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It is a butterfly that cannot bite or sting.
What does it eat?
Its caterpillars eat pellitory, a plant related to nettles, and sometimes nettles too.
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)
Southern 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 looks a lot like the comma butterfly, but its wings are narrower and even more jagged.
2
Butterflies that hatch in autumn are darker and have even more angled wings than the summer ones.
3
Its caterpillar is dark grey with yellow and black bands, branched spines and two little spikes on its head.
4
It flies from March to September, depending on where it lives.
you asked
Most asked questions about Southern comma
?Where does the southern comma live?
In southern Europe, and also in Turkey and the Caucasus.
?What does the southern comma eat?
Its caterpillars eat pellitory and sometimes nettles.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Polygonia egea
- Group
- Butterflies
- Family
- Nymphalidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Lepidoptera > Nymphalidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Polygonia egea (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 William Stephens. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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