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Polygonia interrogationis · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Nymphalidae
It lives in wooded areas and city parks across southern Canada and the eastern United States, feeding on rotting fruit, sap, dung, carrion, and as caterpillars on several trees and nettles. The butterfly goes through the four typical lepidopteran stages and is on the wing from May to September, mainly laying eggs in spring.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The underside of the wings is colored and textured to blend in with dead leaves, providing camouflage.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Adults have a wingspan ranging from 4.5 to 7.6 cm (about 1.8 to 3.0 inches).
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It prefers wooded areas and city parks that have both trees and open spaces.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adult butterflies feed on rotting fruit, tree sap, dung, and carrion. Caterpillars eat a variety of host plants such as American elm, red elm, hackberry, Japanese hop, nettles, and false nettle.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Like all butterflies, it undergoes complete metamorphosis with four stages: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, and adult.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Adults are active from May through September, with most egg-laying occurring in spring until the end of May.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Its range includes southern Canada and most of the eastern United States, extending west to the eastern edge of the Rockies and south to southern Arizona and Mexico.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 45 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland.
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/Polygonia_interrogationis
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.