Junonia grisea
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Junonia grisea, also known as the gray buckeye, grey buckeye, or Western buckeye, is a species in the butterfly family Nymphalidae. It is found in North America, west of the Rocky Mountains. Like the common buckeye, the gray buckeye is a brown butterfly with eyespots on its wings that distract predators from its body.
Junonia grisea was formerly considered a subspecies of the common buckeye, Junonia coenia, called Junonia coenia grisea. The gray buckeye's status as a separate species was discovered in 2018 by Dr. Jeffrey Marcus, an entomologist at the University of Manitoba, and Melanie Lalonde, a graduate student. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Zion National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Grand Canyon National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Channel Islands National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Joshua Tree National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Phoenix | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Mesa | 🇺🇸 United States |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray Buckeye sighting in Phoenix on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 87th most-seen of the 264 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.
April–June and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Gray Buckeye in Phoenix on a given day, against under 5% in July–September and November–March, the lowest months. Those are among Phoenix's driest months, with about 10 mm of rain a month against 35 mm in January.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Gray Buckeye sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Gray Buckeye sightings, Phoenix ranks 5th at about 10%. The best odds are in Sacramento (United States, about 20%), San Francisco (United States, about 20%) and Los Angeles (United States, about 10%).
Same family: Nymphalidae
The closest relatives of the Gray Buckeye that you can see in Phoenix (family Nymphalidae, Brush-footed Butterflies) are Queen (about 40%), Monarch (about 20%) and Gulf Fritillary (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Gray Buckeye is recorded against all the insects logged in Phoenix (28 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.
