I encountered this gorgeous butterfly sunbathing on a patch of mud beside a river. It seems like an unimpressive patch of land, and yet this butterfly, known endearingly as a comma, found exactly what it needed here. In punctuation, commas offer a pause and a moment to simply breathe, which makes this sighting particularly apt.

I love how its wings look storm-torn or artfully picot-edged, depending on your viewpoint.

I looked up the species on the Butterfly Conservation website, where it states “Polygonia c-album, the comma, is a food generalist butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae.”

It also says: “The species has a flexible life cycle, which allows it to capitalize on favourable weather conditions. However, the most remarkable feature of the Comma has been its severe decline in the twentieth century and subsequent comeback. It is now widespread in southern Britain and its range is expanding northwards.”

This adaptability must have helped in its survival story. What can we learn from this? Can you harness this as a fluttering off point for a hopeful story or other creative work?

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to spotting my first semi-colon butterfly or ellipsis butterfly…

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.