Palpopleura lucia
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
Palpopleura lucia, the Lucia widow, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs.
Lucia widow Species text in the Online Atlas of South African Odonata Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 3 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 7 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow sighting in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 18th most-seen of the 31 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow in Gonarezhou National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to March, the lowest months. That is one of Gonarezhou National Park's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain against 150 mm in January.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lucia Widow sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Lucia Widow sightings, Gonarezhou National Park ranks 4th at about 30%. The best odds are in uMkhuze Game Reserve (South Africa, about 40%), South Luangwa National Park (Zambia, about 30%) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 30%).
Same family: Libellulidae
The closest relatives of the Lucia Widow that you can see in Gonarezhou National Park (family Libellulidae, Skimmers) are Violet Dropwing (about 30%), Horned Rockdweller (about 30%) and Red-Veined Dropwing (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lucia Widow is recorded against all the insects logged in Gonarezhou National Park (5 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.
