Udaspes folus
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Ancistroides folus, the grass demon, is a small but prominent butterfly found in India & Nepal that belongs to the skipper family, Hesperiidae. It is regarded as an occasional pest of ginger and turmeric plants. Male. Upperside black, the basal half of both wings covered with minute yellowish scales, markings pure white, semi-hyaline. Forewing with a large white spot filling up the end of the cell, two similar conjoined spots outwardly below it extending from beneath vein 4 to the sub-median vein, hardly separated from each other by vein 2; four conjugated sub-apical spots, the uppermost one minute, two similar spots below them nearer the outer margin, a small spot between these and the two large conjoined spots. Hindwing with a very large medial white patch with its margin sinuous all round; abdominal area covered with yellowish hairs. Underside paler. Forewing with the markings as on the upperside. Hindwing with the white medial patch extending to the abdominal margin from near the costa to one-third above the anal angle, the extension suffused with grey, also extending narrowly to the outer margin, double blackish-brown lunular marks, within the white space at... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Tuen Mun | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Mumbai | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Bengaluru | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Grass Demon sighting in Mumbai on a given day, based on 122 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 42nd most-seen of the 362 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.
September
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Grass Demon in Mumbai on a given day, against under 5% in December and January, the lowest months. That is one of Mumbai's wettest months, with about 380 mm of rain against almost none in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grass Demon sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 26 cities where we can rate Grass Demon sightings, Mumbai ranks 7th at about 20%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Kozhikode (India, about 20%), Tuen Mun (China, about 20%) and Jabalpur (India, about 20%).
Same family: Hesperiidae
The closest relatives of the Grass Demon that you can see in Mumbai (family Hesperiidae, Skippers) are Indian Palm Bob (about 30%), Common Awl (about 20%) and Common Small Flat (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grass Demon is recorded against all the insects logged in Mumbai (122 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.
