Newly Emerged?

[dmclean2]

Hi guys,
I went into the garage to do a repair to-day on the latch for the side gate and on my bench was this Comma , it was on a peice of foam in the sunlight and was pumping its wings slowly up and down , I don't think the tip of the right one is fully extended , and I wondered if it had just emerged , it looks good though, and you dont see Comma's with their wings spread all that often, like the Holly Blue they usually sit with them closed ,
Duncan

[haematocephalus]

Duncan,

That's a nice thing to see. Don't think it can be newly-emerged, Commas normally over-winter as adults and there won't be a new emergence of them until June/July. This one will have been around since last September or thereabouts, and during that time they often accumulate damage to their wings, which is what you can see here I think.

I've seen some very battered and worn Commas in spring, but they seem to be able to fly okay and presumably go on to lay their eggs with no problems.

Martin


Martin Harvey

[Ferret]

I agree I think you are looking at physical damage rather than failure to inflate its wings, there is a piece completely missing from the left wing as well as the damage to the right wing and has already been stated it is at least a couple of months to early for freshly emerged Comma’s, although they do not often sit with there wings spread they will do it when trying to warm up, they also pump there wings up and down to warm the muscles up.