Cupido minimus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The small blue (Cupido minimus) is a Palearctic butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Despite its common name, it is not particularly blue. The male has some bluish suffusion at the base of its upper wings but is mostly dark brown like the female. The species can live in colonies of up to several hundred and in its caterpillar stage is cannibalistic.
Small blue males are dark brown with a scattering of bright blue scales that speckle their wings. Females lack this blue speckling. Both males and females exhibit the characteristic silver underside with black spots. The male has a bluish tint at the base of its wings similar to the upper side. Their wingspan can fall anywhere from 16-27mm, but males tend to be the smaller sex. Small blues are often confused with the female Osiris Blue, whose coloring is similar to that of the male small blue.
C. minimus is found in Europe, Asia Minor, Transcaucasia, Tian-Shan, western Siberia, central Siberia, southern Siberia, the Russian Far East, Amur, Mongolia, Magadan and Kamchatka. The small blue is the smallest butterfly species found in the United Kingdom. It has a very patchy distribution... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 2 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 5 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 7 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 10 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Small Blue sighting in Nizhny Novgorod on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 293rd most-seen of the 405 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Small Blue in Nizhny Novgorod on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Nizhny Novgorod's wettest months, with about 85 mm of rain against 40 mm in February.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Small Blue sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Small Blue sightings, Nizhny Novgorod ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Munich (Germany, about 10%) and Budapest (Hungary, about 10%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Small Blue that you can see in Nizhny Novgorod (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Common Blue (about 10%) and Short-Tailed Blue (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Small Blue is recorded against all the insects logged in Nizhny Novgorod (10 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.
