Dixeia pigea
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Dixeia pigea, the ant-heap small white or ant-heap white, is a butterfly in the family Pieridae that is native to Africa. The wingspan is 40–48 mm for males and 40–52 mm for females. The upperside of the wings of males is pure white with a narrow black forewing tip and small black dots on the hindwing margin. The underside is whitish with two rows of black spots on the hindwings, with the inner row sometimes absent or incomplete. The female has several colour forms, but is usually pale yellowish white on the upper surface with heavier black markings than the male, and has a dark spot on each forewing. There is a rare female form (luteola) where the upperside is orange yellow or deep apricot. The underside of females is similar to the male but the rows of black dots are more pronounced and the base colour is pale to bright yellow. Another rare form (rubrobasalis) has orange suffusion at the base of the underside of the forewing and a creamy-yellow upperside. The dry-season form (alba) has reduced black markings. A distinguishing feature of D. pigea is that the hindwing costal has a yellow streak, unlike other Dixeia species.
This species is found... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 2 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Small Ant-Heap White sighting in Durban on a given day, based on 72 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 26th most-seen of the 401 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Small Ant-Heap White in Durban on a given day, against under 5% in February and October, the lowest months. Those are among Durban's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 210 mm in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Small Ant-Heap White sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Durban, in our data
Durban is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Small Ant-Heap White sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Small Ant-Heap White is recorded against all the insects logged in Durban (72 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.
