Ariadne merione
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Ariadne merione, the common castor, is an orange butterfly with brown lines whose larvae feed almost exclusively on castor (Ricinus communis). It is similar in appearance to Ariadne ariadne, the angled castor. This species is found in South and Southeast Asia. Their wingspan ranges between 30 and 35 mm. Like others in the family Nymphalidae, their front two legs are small and unused, effectively making them four legged. These smaller appendages are covered with long hairs, giving them the characteristic brush look.
Male: Upperside brownish ochraceous. Forewings and hindwings crossed by slender, somewhat obscure, very sinuous or zigzag dark basal, two subbasal and two discal lines disposed in pairs, followed by a single, sometimes double, postdiscal and a single subterminal slender line. All these lines more or less interrupted anteriorly on the hindwing, which has a smooth unmarked uniform appearance from costa to subcostal vein and vein 5. On the forewing there is in addition a series of obscure spots between the postdiscal and subterminal markings, arid a small white subcostal spot before the apex.
Underside much as in Ariadne ariadne, but the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 2 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Raipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Tiruppur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Prayagraj | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Lucknow | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Hyderabad | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Berhampore | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Castor Butterfly sighting in Chennai on a given day, based on 86 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 52nd most-seen of the 376 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Common Castor Butterfly in Chennai on a given day, against about 10% in March, May and July–August, the lowest months. That is one of Chennai's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 290 mm in November.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Castor Butterfly sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
22nd of 29
Of the 29 cities where we can rate Common Castor Butterfly sightings, Chennai ranks 22nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Jabalpur (India, about 40%), Salem (India, about 40%) and Raipur (India, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Castor Butterfly is recorded against all the insects logged in Chennai (86 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.
