Lucia Widow

Lucia Widow

Palpopleura lucia

Daily sighting probability ~20% · Possible
at Durban

In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%

128 Verified sightings at Durban
549 In all 8 parks From 2019 to 2026
March Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Lucia Widow

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 →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 uMkhuze Game Reserve 🇿🇦 South Africa
~40%
2 South Luangwa National Park 🇿🇲 Zambia
~30%
3 iSimangaliso Wetland Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~30%
4 Gonarezhou National Park 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe
~30%
5 Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
6 Kruger National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
7 Kibale National Park 🇺🇬 Uganda
~20%
8 Odzala-Kokoua National Park 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo
~20%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Kigali 🇷🇼 Rwanda
~40%
2 Abidjan 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire
~40%
3 Ouagadougou 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso
~40%
4 Cotonou 🇧🇯 Benin
~30%
5 Dar es-Salaam 🇹🇿 Tanzania
~30%
6 Accra 🇬🇭 Ghana
~30%
7 Kampala 🇺🇬 Uganda
~20%
8 Durban 🇿🇦 South Africa
~20%
9 Nairobi 🇰🇪 Kenya
~10%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Lucia Widow in Durban?

Possible

About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow sighting in Durban on a given day, based on 128 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 12th most-seen of the 401 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.

When is the best time to see a Lucia Widow in Durban?

March

In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow in Durban on a given day, against about 10% in June–September and November–December, the lowest months.

What time of day is best to see a Lucia Widow?

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.

Is Durban the best place to see a Lucia Widow?

8th of 9

Of the 9 cities where we can rate Lucia Widow sightings, Durban ranks 8th at about 20%. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 40%), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire, about 40%) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 40%).

Where does the Lucia Widow sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Lucia Widow is recorded against all the insects logged in Durban (128 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.

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