Diaphania indica
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Diaphania indica, the cucumber moth or cotton caterpillar, is a widespread but mainly Old World moth species. It belongs to the grass moth family, and therein to the large subfamily Spilomelinae. This moth occurs in many tropical and subtropical regions outside the Americas, though it is native to southern Asia; it is occasionally a significant pest of cucurbits and some other plants.
This species was originally described by William Wilson Saunders in 1851 under the misspelled name Eudioptes indica (properly:Eudioptis), using specimens from Java. His syntypes are in the Hope Entomological Collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
The wingspan is about 30 mm. Adults have translucent whitish wings with broad dark brown borders. The body is whitish below, and brown on top of head and thorax as well as the end of the abdomen. There is a tuft of light brown "hairs" on the tip of the abdomen, vestigial in the male but well developed in the female. It is formed by long scales which are carried in a pocket on each side of the 7th abdominal segment, from where they can be everted to form the tufts. Unfertilized females are often seen sitting around with... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daintree National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Namib-Naukluft National Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia | |
| 3 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jamshedpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Vadodara | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 4 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Ahmedabad | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Kochi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cucumber Moth sighting in Pretoria on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 195th most-seen of the 274 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 and May
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cucumber Moth in Pretoria on a given day, against under 5% in June to March, the lowest months. Those are among Pretoria's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in December.
Between 7 and 10 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cucumber Moth sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
18th of 26
Of the 26 cities where we can rate Cucumber Moth sightings, Pretoria ranks 18th at about 10%. The best odds are in Jamshedpur (India, about 30%), Vadodara (India, about 20%) and Kathmandu (Nepal, about 20%).
Same family: Crambidae
The closest relatives of the Cucumber Moth that you can see in Pretoria (family Crambidae, Crambid Snout Moths) are Black Wedge Pyralis (about 10%), Hawaiian Beet Webworm Moth (about 10%) and Dotted Sable (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cucumber Moth is recorded against all the insects logged in Pretoria (6 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.
