Belenois aurota
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Belenois aurota, the pioneer or pioneer white or caper white, is a small to medium-sized butterfly of the family Pieridae—that is, the yellows and whites—which is found in South Asia, West Asia and Africa. In Africa, it is also known as the brown-veined white, and is well known during summer and autumn when large numbers migrate north-east over the interior.
The upperside of males is white with the forewing having the costa from base to base of vein 11 dusky black and then jet black continuing into a widened and curving short streak along the discocellulars to the lower apex of the cell; apical area diagonally with the termen black, the former with six elongate outwardly pointed spots of the ground colour enclosed one in each of the interspaces 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9. Hindwing: uniform, the black along the venation on the underside seen through by transparency; termen between veins 2 and 6 somewhat broadly black, with a series of four round spots of the ground colour in the interspaces; below vein 2 and above vein 6 the termen is very narrowly black. Underside: forewing white, markings similar, more clearly defined, the white spots within the black... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jodhpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | New Delhi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Hyderabad | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kanpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Agra | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pioneer White sighting in Mumbai on a given day, based on 17 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 176th most-seen of the 362 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.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Pioneer White in Mumbai on a given day, against under 5% in August and October–May, the lowest months. That is one of Mumbai's wettest months, with about 830 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 Pioneer White sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
30th of 31
Of the 31 cities where we can rate Pioneer White sightings, Mumbai ranks 30th at about 10%. The best odds are in Jodhpur (India, about 40%), Serrekunda (Gambia, about 30%) and New Delhi (India, about 30%).
Same family: Pieridae
The closest relatives of the Pioneer White that you can see in Mumbai (family Pieridae, Whites, Yellows, and Sulphurs) are Lemon Migrant (about 30%), Common Grass Yellow (about 30%) and Small Salmon Arab (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pioneer White is recorded against all the insects logged in Mumbai (17 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.
