Acraea horta
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
Acraea horta or the garden acraea is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in South Africa and Zimbabwe. A. horta L. (53 e, f) is one of the longest known and commonest Acraeids of the Cape, but it is also native to Pondoland, Natal, Zululand, Transvaal and Zimbabwe. It has a typical wingspan of 45–50 mm for males and 49–53 mm for females. The male is similar to that of neobule, but differs in having the black dots of the fore wing absent or only represented by a dot in the cell and another in 1b, the marginal spots of the hind wing small, elongate and incompletely separated from the ground-colour and the hindwing beneath red at the inner margin and the marginal band. In the female the forewing is almost entirely hyaline and the hindwing above light yellow to grey-yellow, beneath whitish with larger marginal spots, bounded by distinct lunules. The larva is brown-yellow with black transverse lines and yellow 7 lateral and dorsal lines, while the head and spines are black. The larva lives on Kiggelaria africana and various Passiflora species.
female ab. conjuncta Blachier is distinguished by having the discal dots of the hindwing changed into long, broad... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Garden Route National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Garden Acraea sighting in Cape Town on a given day, based on 617 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 2nd most-seen of the 311 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April–May, October and December–February
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Garden Acraea in Cape Town on a given day, against about 10% in September, the lowest month.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Garden Acraea sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 3 cities where we can rate Garden Acraea sightings, Cape Town ranks 3rd at about 30%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Pretoria (South Africa, about 30%) and Johannesburg (South Africa, about 30%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Garden Acraea that you can see in Cape Town (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Painted Lady (about 20%), Cape Autumn Widow (about 20%) and Silver-Bottom Brown (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Garden Acraea is recorded against all the insects logged in Cape Town (617 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.
