Neptis hylas
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
Neptis hylas, the common sailor, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia. It has a characteristic stiff gliding flight achieved by short and shallow wingbeats just above the horizontal. It is also present in Italy in a humid limited zone near Gorizia and Slovenia.
Bengali name: চরবাতাসি Dry-season form - Upperside black, with pure white markings. Forewing discoidal streak clavate (club shaped), apically truncate, subapically either notched or sometimes indistinctly divided; triangular spot beyond broad, well defined, acute at apex, but not elongate; discal series of spots separate, not connate (united), each about twice as long as broad; postdiscal transverse series of small spots incomplete, but some are always present. Hindwing: subbasal band of even or nearly oven width; discal and subterminal pale lines obscure; postdiscal series of spots well separated, quadrate or subquadrate, very seldom narrow. Underside from pale golden ochraceous to dark ochraceous almost chocolate; white markings as on the upperside, but broader and defined in black. Forewing: interspaces 1a and 1 from base to near the apex shaded with black... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 5 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 8 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 9 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 10 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 5 | Visakhapatnam | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Naha | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 7 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Yogyakarta | 🇮🇩 Indonesia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sailer sighting in Chennai on a given day, based on 31 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 110th most-seen of the 376 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Sailer in Chennai on a given day, against under 5% in May and July, the lowest months. Those are among Chennai's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month 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 Sailer sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
29th of 35
Of the 35 cities where we can rate Common Sailer sightings, Chennai ranks 29th at about 10%. The best odds are in Salem (India, about 30%), Jabalpur (India, about 30%) and Jamshedpur (India, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Sailer is recorded against all the insects logged in Chennai (31 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.
