Anartia fatima
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Anartia fatima, the banded peacock, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is commonly found in south Texas, Mexico, and Central America but most studied in Costa Rica. This butterfly prefers subtropical climates and moist areas, such as near rivers. It spends much of its time in second-growth woodlands.
Its larvae feed on plants in the family Acanthaceae, while adults primarily feed on flower nectar from Acanthus species. The species is diurnal. These butterflies face interspecies competition for nectar with other butterflies and must also compete with hummingbirds, who will chase them away.
The eggs are laid in low-lying host plant leaves and flower bracts. Several hundred are laid by a single female within the span of a few days, with only a small percentage of the eggs surviving to adulthood. Eggs take five days to hatch and the larvae complete six instar phases before pupation. After pupation is complete, adults emerge and fly off within 1–2 hours.
This butterfly is not toxic to predators. It is the victim of predation by many bird, lizard, frog, and arthropod species. However, this butterfly is so ubiquitous that losses from predation do not endanger the species. Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | San Pedro Sula | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 3 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 4 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 5 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 6 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 7 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 8 | Monterrey | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 9 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Peacock sighting in Guatemala City on a given day, based on 20 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 17th most-seen of the 87 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.
November and December
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Banded Peacock in Guatemala City on a given day, against under 5% in January and June–July, the lowest months. Those are among Guatemala City's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 240 mm in September.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Banded Peacock sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Banded Peacock sightings, Guatemala City ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in San José (Costa Rica, about 30%), San Pedro Sula (Honduras, about 30%) and Panama City (Panama, about 30%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Banded Peacock that you can see in Guatemala City (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Monarch (about 50%), Zebra Longwing (about 30%) and Mexican Silverspot (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Banded Peacock is recorded against all the insects logged in Guatemala City (20 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.
