Question Mark

Here's a Question Mark I met a couple months ago. I've talked before about this species, so today I'll just relay a little "who's on first" conversation I had with someone at Duke Farms once (long before this picture was taken). I believe this was at the end of one of the tree ID hikes that Duke Farms used to routinely have. The exchange went something like this:

A Question Mark butterfly lands on the road.

Other person: Does anybody know what kind of butterfly that is?

Me: That's a Question Mark.

Other person: Oh, I was hoping you knew what kind of butterfly it is.

Me: I do know what kind of butterfly it is. The name is a Question Mark.

Other person: So you recognize the butterfly but don't know the name. I want to know the name of the butterfly.

Me: The butterfly has a mark on its underwing that resembles the punctuation mark called a question mark, and so it's named the Question Mark. It is a cousin to other butterflies called Commas.

Other person: Oh. You should change the name of the butterfly.

The person obviously thought I had much more power in the lepidopteran community than I do. 😀

June 10, 2021 at Duke Farms
Photo 136370695, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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