Ariadne merione
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Ariadne merione, the common castor, is an orange butterfly with brown lines whose larvae feed almost exclusively on castor (Ricinus communis). It is similar in appearance to Ariadne ariadne, the angled castor. This species is found in South and Southeast Asia. Their wingspan ranges between 30 and 35 mm. Like others in the family Nymphalidae, their front two legs are small and unused, effectively making them four legged. These smaller appendages are covered with long hairs, giving them the characteristic brush look.
Male: Upperside brownish ochraceous. Forewings and hindwings crossed by slender, somewhat obscure, very sinuous or zigzag dark basal, two subbasal and two discal lines disposed in pairs, followed by a single, sometimes double, postdiscal and a single subterminal slender line. All these lines more or less interrupted anteriorly on the hindwing, which has a smooth unmarked uniform appearance from costa to subcostal vein and vein 5. On the forewing there is in addition a series of obscure spots between the postdiscal and subterminal markings, arid a small white subcostal spot before the apex.
Underside much as in Ariadne ariadne, but the... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 2 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Raipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Tiruppur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Prayagraj | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Lucknow | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Hyderabad | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Berhampore | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Common Castor Butterfly sighting in Kolkata on a given day, based on 45 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 55th 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 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Common Castor Butterfly in Kolkata on a given day, against about 10% in May–June and August–October, the lowest months. That is one of Kolkata's wettest months, with about 330 mm of rain against 10 mm in December.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Common Castor Butterfly sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
23rd of 29
Of the 29 cities where we can rate Common Castor Butterfly sightings, Kolkata ranks 23rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Jabalpur (India, about 40%), Salem (India, about 40%) and Raipur (India, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Common Castor Butterfly is recorded against all the insects logged in Kolkata (45 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.
