Eastern Comma, home

More often than not, I've seen a wide enough variety of flora and fauna that I don't have to repeat myself. A fern needn't follow a fern... a wildflower doesn't have to follow another bloom... two bird posts in a row wouldn't be required. Still, there are days when fulfilling my self-mandated charge of writing up the best shot of the hike means that a bit of repetition is occasionally in order. Thus, two butterfly shots in a row. Without a doubt, this photo of an Eastern Comma, taken when the butterfly took a break from either fighting or attempting to mate with another member of its species, wins today's prize, and it also had the added bonus of pushing me to re-learn the fairly tricky skill of separating the Comma from the Question Mark, its close relative. The former—both Polygonias get their common names from the resemblance of markings on the back of the hindwing to punctuation marks—has, it turns out, a row of three spots in the middle of the forewing; the latter has four. No question: this is a Comma.