Acontia cretata
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Acontia cretata, the chalky bird dropping moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote and Coleman Townsend Robinson in 1870. It is found from the US states of California to Texas and Oklahoma, north to Colorado and Utah.
The wingspan is 22–27 mm. Adults are on wing from April to September. The larva has been recorded as a host of the parasitoid braconid wasp Bracon mellitor. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Big Bend National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Antonio | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chalky Bird Dropping Moth sighting in Big Bend National Park on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 155th most-seen of the 329 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Chalky Bird Dropping Moth in Big Bend National Park on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and November–March, the lowest months. That is one of Big Bend National Park's wettest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 10 mm in April.
Between 10 pm and 1 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chalky Bird Dropping Moth sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
Only Big Bend National Park, in our data
Big Bend National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Chalky Bird Dropping Moth sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Acontia
The closest relatives of the Chalky Bird Dropping Moth that you can see in Big Bend National Park (genus Acontia) are Acontia cuta (about 10%), Polished Bird-Dropping Moth (about 10%) and Acontia dorneri (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chalky Bird Dropping Moth is recorded against all the insects logged in Big Bend National Park (15 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
