No standard Gaeilge name is recorded in An Coimisinéir Teanga terminology or Ó Dónaill’s dictionary. The Comma, Polygonia c-album, is a recent Irish colonist expanding rapidly from a southern beachhead first documented in the 1990s.
Identify it in four steps
- Upperside bright orange with dark chevrons and blotches, similar to Small Tortoiseshell but with a distinctly ragged, scalloped wing outline.
- Underside dark bark-brown with a small white “c” or comma mark on the hindwing, the diagnostic field mark that names the species.
- Wing shape is the strongest first cue: no other Irish resident carries the deeply cut, angular wing margin.
- Wingspan 50 to 64 mm; flight is a fast, dashing glide, often settling on tree trunks or Buddleia flowers with wings held part-open.
Habitat in Ireland
The Comma uses woodland edge, hedgerow, mature garden, and scrub margin. Larvae feed on Common Nettle (Urtica dioica), Hop (Humulus lupulus), and Wych Elm (Ulmus glabra). Two broods in Ireland in warm years, with a summer generation of paler hutchinsoni form individuals and a darker overwintering generation.
Adults overwinter in tree cover and dense scrub, the ragged bark-brown underside providing camouflage. The species was first confirmed breeding in Ireland in the late 1990s and has expanded northward and westward since, tracked in detail by Butterfly Conservation Ireland recording.
Where to see it
- Wexford and southeast hedgerows: the historic Irish beachhead; reliable April to October sightings in mature hedges and garden verges.
- Wicklow Uplands and Glen of the Downs: woodland edge and Buddleia-rich gardens on the valley floor.
- Phoenix Park, Dublin: mature parkland with elm and nettle patches now regularly holds records.
Recorded in an expanding range across southern and eastern Ireland in the National Biodiversity Data Centre atlas 2014-2019, with continued northward spread; listed Least Concern in the Butterfly Conservation Ireland Red List (2010, revised 2019).
Related species
Recorded in 22 of 26 Irish counties in the National Biodiversity Data Centre atlas, with the strongest concentrations in Munster and eastern Leinster. Numbers dropped through the 2010s and partially recovered from 2019 onward.1
Source: National Biodiversity Data Centre butterfly atlas 2014 to 2019, and Butterfly Conservation Ireland annual review 2024.
