Question Mark Butterfly vs Dusky Birch Sawfly

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Question Mark Butterfly Dusky Birch Sawfly
Scientific Name Polygonia interrogationis Croesus latitarsus
Order Lepidoptera Hymenoptera
Family Nymphalidae Tenthredinidae
Size 45-76 mm wingspan 8-10 mm
Habitat Woodlands Woodlands
Diet Sap Feeders Herbivores
Regions North America North America
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Question Mark Butterfly

Orange butterfly with dark spots and irregular wing margins. A silvery question-mark shape on the underside of the hindwing gives it its name.

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Did You Know?

It rarely visits flowers, preferring to feed on fermenting fruit, sap, and animal dung.

Dusky Birch Sawfly

A medium-sized sawfly with an orange abdomen and black head and thorax. Larvae are yellowish-green with dark spots and feed in rows along the edges of birch leaves.

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Did You Know?

The larvae feed in a distinctive edge-to-edge pattern, consuming the leaf blade while leaving the midrib intact like a fishbone.