Melanchroia chephise
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Melanchroia chephise, the white-tipped black or snowbush spanworm, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found from Florida and Texas, south to Paraguay. Strays have been recorded from Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois.
The wingspan is about 33 mm. Adults are on wing from September to December. Larvae feed on Phyllanthaceae species, including Breynia and Phyllanthus. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Masaya Volcano National Park | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 3 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 4 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 6 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tipped Black sighting in Houston on a given day, based on 120 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 137th most-seen of the 1057 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August to January
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tipped Black in Houston on a given day, against under 5% in February to July, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-Tipped Black sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 14
Of the 14 cities where we can rate White-Tipped Black sightings, Houston ranks 8th at about 10%. The best odds are in San José (Costa Rica, about 20%), Bogota (Colombia, about 10%) and San Salvador (El Salvador, about 10%).
Same family: Geometridae
The closest relatives of the White-Tipped Black that you can see in Houston (family Geometridae, Geometer Moths) are Pannaria Wave (about 10%) and Southern Emerald (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-Tipped Black is recorded against all the insects logged in Houston (120 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.
