Vacciniina optilete
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Agriades optilete, the cranberry blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It is found in north eastern Europe, the Alps, North Asia, Japan, Korea and north western North America. The length of the forewings is about 14 mm. The butterfly flies from June to August depending on the location.
The larvae feed on Vaccinium oxycoccos, Empetrum nigrum, bilberry and other cranberry and Empetrum species. L. optilete Knoch (79 b). This species is quite out of place in the present group of Lycaena in characters as well as habits, and would be much better placed in a later group than here where it stands in Staudinger-Rebel's Catalogue. Both wings very broad and their outer margins strongly rounded. Male above very dull dark violet-blue, sometimes with a broader black margin, sometimes without black margin. In the female only the basal half of the upperside is dusted with glossy blue scales. Underside dirty dust-grey, the ocelli very large, often distorted; only the anal area of the hindwing beneath bears orange spots before the margin, from which they are separated by two large round dots with metallic centres. More in the North, in Central and North Europe as... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 2 | Denali National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cranberry Blue sighting in Denali National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 24th most-seen of the 36 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.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Cranberry Blue in Denali National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–May and August–October, the lowest months. That is one of Denali National Park's wettest months, with about 150 mm of rain against 45 mm in April. November to February have too few records to rate.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cranberry Blue sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Cranberry Blue sightings, Denali National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria, about 20%).
Same order: Lepidoptera
The closest relatives of the Cranberry Blue that you can see in Denali National Park (order Lepidoptera, Butterflies and Moths) are Aspen Serpentine Leafminer Moth (about 40%), Theano Alpine (about 20%) and Large Heath (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cranberry Blue is recorded against all the insects logged in Denali National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
