Palpopleura lucia
In 3 days ~70% in a week >90%
Palpopleura lucia, the Lucia widow, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs.
Lucia widow Species text in the Online Atlas of South African Odonata Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 3 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 7 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow sighting in Abidjan on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 5th most-seen of the 11 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and May–June
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow in Abidjan on a given day, against under 5% in August, the lowest month. Those are among Abidjan's wettest months, with about 200 mm of rain a month against 25 mm in January.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lucia Widow sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Lucia Widow sightings, Abidjan ranks 2nd at about 40%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lucia Widow is recorded against all the insects logged in Abidjan (8 verified sightings), 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.
