Dispar compacta
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Dispar compacta, commonly known as the dispar skipper, barred skipper, or barred grass-skipper, is a species of butterfly in the family Hesperiidae. It was described by Arthur Gardiner Butler in 1882 as Telesto compacta and is endemic to eastern Australia.
Dispar compacta occurs in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, and Victoria. It can be found in moist grasslands, open forests, and urban parks and gardens in shaded areas where grasses grow.
Dispar compacta adults are brown above and orange-brown below with white or cream-coloured markings on the wings and a wingspan of approximately 23 mm (0.91 in). Males and females exhibit different markings on the wings. From above, the forewings of males each have a cream-coloured hook-shaped marking, a central spot, a band of three subapical spots, and a central band of grey sex scales, while the hindwings each have a band of four cream-coloured postmedian spots. From above, the forewings of females each have two central spots, a band of three subapical spots, a spot near the middle of the leading edge of the forewing, and a spot near the trailing edge... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Otway National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Wilsons Promontory National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Blue Mountains National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Melbourne | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Skipper sighting in Melbourne on a given day, based on 94 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 164th most-seen of the 875 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Barred Skipper in Melbourne on a given day, against under 5% in April to December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Barred Skipper sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Melbourne, in our data
Melbourne is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Barred Skipper sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Hesperiidae
The closest relatives of the Barred Skipper that you can see in Melbourne (family Hesperiidae, Skippers) are Yellow-Banded Dart (about 30%), Orange Palm Dart (about 10%) and Splendid Ochre (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Barred Skipper is recorded against all the insects logged in Melbourne (94 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.
