Bug FAQHoary Comma
Polygonia gracilis · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
The Hoary Comma is a butterfly with ragged wing edges that lives across boreal North America from Alaska to New England and down to New Mexico. Adults sip tree sap and nectar from flowers like sweet everlasting, while caterpillars eat leaves of shrubs such as currant and western or mock azalea. They spend winter as adults in diapause, mate and lay eggs in spring, and the new butterflies emerge from chrysalids in midsummer.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The wings have a ragged edge.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Caterpillars eat leaves of shrubs such as currant, western azalea, and mock azalea.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
They overwinter as adults in diapause, then mate and lay eggs in spring. New butterflies emerge from their chrysalids in midsummer.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Butterflies appear in midsummer.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Their native range matches their habitat across boreal North America from Alaska to New England and down to New Mexico.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 26 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Colorado, California, Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Montana.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Nymphalidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoary_comma
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.