Telchinia serena
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~60%
Acraea serena, the dancing acraea, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found throughout Africa south of the Sahara. It is the most common of the Acraea, from Dakar to Fort-Dauphin and from Yemen to the Cape. This is the type species of the old genus Telchinia, which may warrant re-separation from Acraea. Formerly, A. serena was often misidentified as Acraea eponina (small orange acraea) or Acraea terpsicore (tawny coaster).
It is very likely that the butterfly's black-spotted orange markings are a sign of unpalatability and it may well form part of a mimicry ring with Erikssonia edgei. Acraea manjaca from Madagascar, now considered to be conspecific with Acraea serena, has a complex taxonomic history which illustrates the problems in interpreting the genus as a whole. Here is an account of how Acraea manjaca was placed by different authors.
Boisduval notes the proximity with eponina Cramer in his original description of 1833. Aurivillius (1898) considers... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 2 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | Gorongosa National Park | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 4 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 5 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Hwange National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 8 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo | |
| 9 | Pilanesberg National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 10 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 12 | Chobe National Park | 🇧🇼 Botswana |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maputo | 🇲🇿 Mozambique | |
| 2 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 3 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 4 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 5 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 6 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 8 | Antananarivo | 🇲🇬 Madagascar | |
| 9 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 10 | Harare | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dancing Amber sighting in Johannesburg on a given day, based on 51 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 24th most-seen of the 213 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to June
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Dancing Amber in Johannesburg on a given day, against under 5% in July–September and November, the lowest months. Those are among Johannesburg's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in December.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dancing Amber sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
11th of 14
Of the 14 cities where we can rate Dancing Amber sightings, Johannesburg ranks 11th at about 10%. The best odds are in Maputo (Mozambique, about 40%), Accra (Ghana, about 40%) and Cotonou (Benin, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dancing Amber is recorded against all the insects logged in Johannesburg (51 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.
