Limenitis lorquini
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Lorquin's admiral (Limenitis lorquini) is a butterfly in the Nymphalinae subfamily. The butterfly is named after Pierre Joseph Michel Lorquin, a French naturalist who came to California from France during the Gold Rush, and made important discoveries on the natural history of the terrain.
The Lorquin's admiral can mostly be found across the Upper Sonoran to the Canadian Zone, east to western Montana and Idaho. Known areas include southern British Columbia (including Vancouver Island, north of Emerald Lake), and Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan as well as southwestern Alberta.
The butterfly resides mostly in forest edges, mountain canyons, parks, streamsides, fencerows, orchards, and groves of cottonwood and poplar. Usually the butterflies feed on California buckeye, yerba santa, privet, bird droppings, and dung. They are extremely territorial and will attack any intruders into their habitat, including large birds.
The Lorquin's admiral has brown-black wings, each with a row of white spots across it. Its forewings have orange tips. Wingspan: 47 to 71 mm; females are generally larger than males. Larvae are usually... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Glacier National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Yosemite National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Pacific Rim National Park Reserve | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Olympic National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Vancouver | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 4 | San Diego | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | San Francisco | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Lorquin's Admiral sighting in San Francisco on a given day, based on 178 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 108th most-seen of the 737 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April to June
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lorquin's Admiral in San Francisco on a given day, against under 5% in July to March, the lowest months. Those are among San Francisco's driest months, with about 20 mm of rain a month against 110 mm in December.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lorquin's Admiral sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 7
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Lorquin's Admiral sightings, San Francisco ranks 7th at under 5%. The best odds are in Seattle (United States, about 10%), Sacramento (United States, about 10%) and Vancouver (Canada, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lorquin's Admiral is recorded against all the insects logged in San Francisco (178 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.
