Zizeeria karsandra
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Zizeeria karsandra, the dark grass blue, is a small butterfly first described by Frederic Moore in 1865. It is found from the southern Mediterranean, in a broad band to India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Yunnan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Oman, New Guinea and northern and eastern Australia. It belongs to the lycaenids or blues family, and the tribe Polyommatini.
Frederic Moore described this species on 1865 as: "Upperside purple-brown. Underside greyish brown, exterior margins defined by a brown line: fore wing with a spot within discoidal cell, a discocellular streak, a spot above it, and a transverse discal series of six spots black, each encircled with white; a marginal and submarginal row of pale brown, white-bordered lunules: hind wing with a series of twelve black spots, and a pale discocellular streak, encircled with white; a marginal row of pale brown, whitish-encircled spots, and a submarginal row of whitish lunules: cilia greyish brown."
The recorded food plants include: Zornia diphylla Amaranthus viridis (in association with the ant Tapinoma melanocephalum... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Vadodara | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Raipur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Prayagraj | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Karachi | 🇵🇰 Pakistan | |
| 6 | Davao City | 🇵🇭 Philippines | |
| 7 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chattogram | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 9 | Chennai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Antalya | 🇹🇷 Turkey |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Grass Blue sighting in Kolkata on a given day, based on 20 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 87th most-seen of the 213 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to July
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Grass Blue in Kolkata on a given day, against under 5% in March–April, September and December, the lowest months. Those are among Kolkata's wettest months, with about 240 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in December.
26th of 32
Of the 32 cities where we can rate Dark Grass Blue sightings, Kolkata ranks 26th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kanpur (India, about 50%), Vadodara (India, about 30%) and Raipur (India, about 30%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Dark Grass Blue that you can see in Kolkata (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Plains Cupid (about 30%), Pale Grass Blue (about 20%) and Gram Blue (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dark Grass Blue is recorded against all the insects logged in Kolkata (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.
