Palpopleura lucia
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~60%
Palpopleura lucia, the Lucia widow, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs.
Lucia widow Species text in the Online Atlas of South African Odonata Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 3 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 7 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow sighting in Nairobi on a given day, based on 15 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 32nd most-seen of the 123 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March, May, August and November
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow in Nairobi on a given day, against under 5% in February and September–October, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lucia Widow sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 9
Of the 9 cities where we can rate Lucia Widow sightings, Nairobi ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Kigali (Rwanda, about 40%), Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire, about 40%) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso, about 40%).
Same family: Libellulidae
The closest relatives of the Lucia Widow that you can see in Nairobi (family Libellulidae, Skimmers) are Orange-Winged Dropwing (about 10%), Red-Veined Dropwing (about 10%) and Southern Banded Groundling (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lucia Widow is recorded against all the insects logged in Nairobi (15 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.
