CreatureData

Hoary comma

Polygonia gracilis (Grote & Robinson, 1867)

Status not recordedbutterflies and moths

The hoary comma (Polygonia gracilis) is a species in the family Nymphalidae, order Lepidoptera.

No freely licensed photo yet

Quick facts about the hoary comma

Weight
Not recorded
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
4.18 cm – 5 cm
Lifespan
Not recorded
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
Not recorded
Young per litter or clutch
Not recorded
On the wing
April to October
Generations a year
One
Larval food plants
Grossulariaceae family
Conservation status
Not recorded
Countries on record
Not recorded

How big is the hoary comma?

HOARY COMMA · WINGSPAN 5 CMADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 5 cm, the recorded maximum wingspan of the hoary comma is about 2.9% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the hoary comma live?

Not recorded

Is the hoary comma endangered?

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

How is the hoary comma classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumArthropoda
  3. classInsecta
  4. orderLepidoptera
  5. familyNymphalidae
  6. genusPolygonia
  7. SpeciesPolygonia gracilis (Grote & Robinson, 1867)

Synonyms Polygonia c-argenteum, Vanessa gracilis

Other names and names in other languages (2)
  • Mariposa ninfaSpanish
  • polygone gracileFrench

Catalogue of Life

Relatives of the hoary comma

Other species in the same genus Polygonia.

Comma (Polygonia c-album)

Comma

Polygonia c-album

Nymphalidae

Asian comma

Polygonia c-aureum

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

Question mark

Polygonia interrogationis

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

Green comma

Polygonia faunus

NymphalidaeNo free photo yet

CompareHoary comma vs CommaHoary comma vs Asian commaHoary comma vs Southern commaHoary comma vs Question mark

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the hoary comma?

An adult hoary comma has a wingspan of 4.18 cm – 5 cm, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the hoary comma?

The hoary comma (Polygonia gracilis) belongs to the family Nymphalidae in the order Lepidoptera.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Hoary comma (Polygonia gracilis). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/hoary-comma

MLA

“Hoary comma (Polygonia gracilis).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/hoary-comma.

BibTeX
@misc{hoary_comma_2026,
  title = {Hoary comma (Polygonia gracilis)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/hoary-comma},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}