Comma ID help, Virginia
Alan Wormington
wormington at juno.com
Mon Nov 1 00:11:24 EDT 2010
David,
Your possible Green Comma looks like an ordinary Eastern Comma to me.
cheers,
Alan Wormington
Leamington, Ontario
On Mon, 5 Dec 1994 13:02:47 -0700 (MST) David Hamilton Cox
<dhcox at nyx.net> writes:
>
> Until a few weeks ago, I assumed that all the Polygonia species
> that I
> encountered here in Madison County, Virginia, were either the
> Eastern Comma,
> P. comma, or the Question Mark, P. interrogationis. Then on October
> 13 I
> saw and photographed what I assume is a Gray Comma, P. progne. This
> individual caught my eye because it seemed smaller and somehow
> different,
> and the photos do seem to show a more ragged wing margin, "outer
> half
> of FW (but not HW) is frosted" ("Butterflies of the East Coast,"
> Cech and
> Tudor), and the "comma" is thin, one "leg" shorter than the other.
>
> So I've been paying more attention to Comma's and on October 17 I
> photographed two other individuals in the same area as the October
> 13 Gray
> Comma (Whiteoak Canyon, Shenandoah National Park). I assume that
> these
> are both P. Comma but would like confirmation, if these photos show
> enough
> detail to do so.
>
> Then, this past Thursday, hiking up the nearby Cedar Run trail, I
> saw
> another interesting Polygonia, a sluggish individual that let me get
> quite close with my camera, and even pick it up. Above, this one has
> the
> "innermost black spot on the trailing FW dot row is doubled across
> the
> vein" (same reference) which made me think it might be a Green
> Comma,
> P. faunus, but further study has led me to think it is an Eastern
> Comma
> that happens to have this variant (the doubled innermost black
> spot). This
> would be a bit out of range for the Green Comma and the other
> identifying
> marks seem missing.
>
> All these photos: above and below of the Gray Comma, the two
> Eastern Comma's,
> and the possible Green Comma above and below, can be seen here:
>
> http://www.cig.usa.canon.com/p?p=BDYEVy7C5jC
>
> I would appreciate any opinions on the identification of these
> butterflies.
>
> -David Cox
>
>
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"The Early Worm Gets The Bird!"
-- Alan Wormington
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