Talicada nyseus
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
Talicada nyseus, the red Pierrot, is a small but striking butterfly found in the Indian subcontinent and South-East Asia belonging to the lycaenids, or blues family. The red Pierrots, often found perching on its larva host plant, Kalanchoe, are usually noticed due to their striking patterns and colors.
The butterfly has a wingspan of 3 to 3.5 cm. The upperside of its wings are black except for a large orange portion of the lower edge of the hindwing. On the underside, the forewing is white with black spots more toward the margin. The hindwing is very striking, it is white with black spots toward the base and the margin has a wide band of orange with white spots. There is a lot of variation found in the blacks spots on the hindwings.
Males and females. Upperside: black or brownish black, in fresh specimens in certain lights with a dull purplish flush. Fore wing: uniform, with a very slender thread-like edging of white to the costa. Hindwing: a large conspicuous orange-red patch on the posterior terminal half of the wing between the dorsum and vein 7; this patch does not extend quite to the termen but leaves a narrow edging of the black ground... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Chandigarh | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bhopal | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Red Pierrot sighting in Kochi on a given day, based on 46 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 99th most-seen of the 428 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Red Pierrot in Kochi on a given day, against about 10% in November to September, the lowest months. That is one of Kochi's wettest months, with about 360 mm of rain against 15 mm in January.
Between 1 and 4 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red Pierrot sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
21st of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Red Pierrot sightings, Kochi ranks 21st at about 10%. The best odds are in Guwahati (India, about 50%), Indore (India, about 40%) and Pune (India, about 40%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Red Pierrot that you can see in Kochi (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Monkey Puzzle (about 20%), Common Cerulean (about 20%) and Lesser Grass Blue (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red Pierrot is recorded against all the insects logged in Kochi (46 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.
