Melanchroia chephise
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Melanchroia chephise, the white-tipped black or snowbush spanworm, is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found from Florida and Texas, south to Paraguay. Strays have been recorded from Arizona, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois.
The wingspan is about 33 mm. Adults are on wing from September to December. Larvae feed on Phyllanthaceae species, including Breynia and Phyllanthus. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machalilla National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Masaya Volcano National Park | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 3 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Bogota | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 3 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 4 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | Guatemala City | 🇬🇹 Guatemala | |
| 6 | Medellín | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Panama City | 🇵🇦 Panama |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tipped Black sighting in San José on a given day, based on 95 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 16th most-seen of the 239 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and February
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a White-Tipped Black in San José on a given day, against about 10% in April, August–September and November, the lowest months. Those are among San José's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain a month against 300 mm in October.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-Tipped Black sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 14 cities where we can rate White-Tipped Black sightings, San José has the highest daily chance: about 20%. Next come Bogota (Colombia, about 10%) and San Salvador (El Salvador, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-Tipped Black is recorded against all the insects logged in San José (95 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.
