Question Mark

bugman

November 9th, 2006 at 1:00 am

Categories

Found in Arkansas!
Found this in Arkansas in the woods….. Is it a moth, or a butterfly?? He seems to LOVE to hang out with Yellow Jackets and Green Flies at the bottom of this pine tree. Probably eating sap. THanks!
Linda

Hi Linda,
This is an Anglewing Butterfly known as the Question Mark. It was named for a silver mark on the underside of the hind wing that resembles the punctuation mark for interrogation. It can be distinguised from the other punctuation mark butterflies by the row of four dark spots on the upper wing. According to Jeffrey Glassberg in his book Butterflies Through Binoculars The West, “Unlike most of our butterflies, adult anglewings and tortoiseshells rarely nectar at flowers. Instead, they often can be seen taking sap from trees, congretating on rotten fruit, or even deriving sustenance from animal scat or carrion. … Also unlike an other western butterflies, species in these groups overwinter in cold areas as adults. The adult butterlies crawl into narrow cavities in trees, or into cracks in human dwellings. In warm days in the dead of winter, they can sometimes be found flying in the sunshine! The overwintering adults usually mate in the early springtime.”