Genus of insects
P. c-album showing angular wings and typical comma marking
Polygonia (from Greek πολύς - polys , "many"[ 1] and γωνία - gōnia , "angle"[ 2] ) is a genus of butterflies with a conspicuous white mark on the underside of each hindwing, hence the common name comma . They also have conspicuous angular notches on the outer edges of their forewings, hence the other common name anglewing butterflies. The related genus Nymphalis also includes some anglewing species; Polygonia is sometimes classified as a subgenus of Nymphalis .[ 3]
Many members of Polygonia hibernate as adults.[ 4]
Species include:[ 5] [ 6]
Polygonia c-album (Linnaeus, 1758) – comma
Polygonia c-aureum (Linnaeus, 1758) – Asian comma
Polygonia comma (Harris, 1842) – eastern comma
Polygonia egea (Cramer, 1775) – southern comma
Polygonia faunus (Edwards, 1862) – Faunus anglewing, Faunus comma, green comma
Polygonia g-argenteum Doubleday & Hewitson, 1846 – Mexican anglewing
Polygonia gigantea (Leech, 1883) – giant comma
Polygonia gracilis (Grote & Robinson, 1867) – hoary comma
Polygonia haroldii Dewitz, 1877 – spotless anglewing
Polygonia interposita (Staudinger, 1881)
Polygonia interrogationis (Fabricius, 1798) – question mark
Polygonia oreas (Edwards, 1869) – oreas anglewing, oreas comma, sylvan anglewing
Polygonia progne (Cramer, 1775) – grey comma, gray comma
Polygonia satyrus (Edwards, 1869) – satyr anglewing, satyr comma
Polygonia undina (Grum-Grshimailo, 1890)
Polygonia zephyrus (Edwards, 1870) – zephyr comma
^ πολύς , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , on Perseus
^ γωνία , Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon , on Perseus
^ "Nymphalis Kluk, 1780" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms
^ Scott, J. A. (1999). Hibernal diapause of North American Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea. Archived 2018-10-08 at the Wayback Machine Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 18(3):171-200.
^ Polygonia , Tree of Life
^ Wahlberg, N. et al. (2009). Timing major conflict between mitochondrial and nuclear genes in species relationships of Polygonia butterflies (Nymphalidae: Nymphalini). BMC Evolutionary Biology 9:92.