Coenonympha iphis
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
Coenonympha glycerion, the chestnut heath, is a butterfly species belonging to the family Nymphalidae. It is also known as Coenonympha iphis. It can be found in Eastern Europe and east across the Palearctic to Siberia and the Caucasus to North Korea.
C. glycerion is a small orange-brown butterfly, similar in size to a small heath but with distinct eye-spots (ocelli) on its hindwing. The hindwing has several ocelli on the underside, often five or six. Beyond the middle are two large irregular white sinuous patches, either separate or thinly connected. The underside of the forewing is meanwhile either entirely without ocelli, or has a small, pale, ocellus near the tip of the wing.
There is some variation between sexes: the disc of the forewing of the male on the upperside is washed with copper-brown, while that of the female is yellowish brown, in varying shades. The hindwing is uniformly blackish brown.
The Larva is dull green with a blue-green head, a dark dorsal stripe, a pale lateral one, as well as a red anal fork; the spiracles yellowish red. The pupa is green with white-spotted abdomen and dark-edged wing-cases. Ssp. anaxagoras - Central & Eastern... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 3 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 4 | Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 6 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 10 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Coenonympha iphis sighting in Ecrins National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 149th most-seen of the 251 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Coenonympha iphis in Ecrins National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to June, the lowest months. That is one of Ecrins National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain against 160 mm in December.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Coenonympha iphis sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
8th of 10
Of the 10 parks where we can rate Coenonympha iphis sightings, Ecrins National Park ranks 8th at about 10%. The best odds are in Mercantour National Park (France, about 30%), Biebrza National Park (Poland, about 20%) and Kiskunság National Park (Hungary, about 20%).
Same genus: Coenonympha
The closest relatives of the Coenonympha iphis that you can see in Ecrins National Park (genus Coenonympha) are Small Heath (about 20%) and Pearly Heath (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Coenonympha iphis is recorded against all the insects logged in Ecrins National Park (11 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.
