Leptotes cassius
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Leptotes cassius, the Cassius blue or tropical striped blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in North America in Florida including the Keys, Texas south through the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America to South America. Strays have been found in New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
The wingspan is 20–35 mm. The butterfly species has an important role in Marisha Pessl's 2006 novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics. The protagonist, Blue van Meer, is named in honor of the Cassius blue. The caterpillars feed natively on Fabaceae. Food plants on record are Amorpha crenulata, woolly rattlepod (Crotalaria incana), Galactia regularis and lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus). It can also successfully develop feeding on Cape leadwort (Plumbago auriculata) or doctorbush (P. scandens), which (among the eudicots) are not closely related to its usual food plants. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park | 🇯🇲 Jamaica | |
| 2 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 4 | Big Cypress National Preserve | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 6 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Cumbres de Monterrey National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mendoza | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 2 | Porto Alegre | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Buenos Aires | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 5 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Rosario | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 7 | Caracas | 🇻🇪 Venezuela | |
| 8 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Cordoba | 🇦🇷 Argentina | |
| 10 | Vitória | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cassius Blue sighting in Vitória on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 23rd most-seen of the 129 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and August
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Cassius Blue in Vitória on a given day, against under 5% in February–March and November, the lowest months. Those are among Vitória's driest months, with about 60 mm of rain a month against 200 mm in November.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cassius Blue sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
10th of 22
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Cassius Blue sightings, Vitória ranks 10th at about 10%. The best odds are in Mendoza (Argentina, about 20%), Porto Alegre (Brazil, about 20%) and São Paulo (Brazil, about 20%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Cassius Blue that you can see in Vitória (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Hanno Blue (about 10%), Electrostrymon endymion (about 10%) and Gold-Bordered Hairstreak (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cassius Blue is recorded against all the insects logged in Vitória (19 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.
