Polygonia

*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

Notes

^ 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.

References

Family Nymphalidae. Butterflies of Canada.
Genus Nymphalis. Zdenek Fric.

[1] πολύς, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus

[2] γωνία, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus

[3] "Nymphalis Kluk, 1780" at Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms

[4] 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.

[5] Polygonia, Tree of Life

[6] 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.