Belenois aurota
In 3 days ~70% in a week ~90%
Belenois aurota, the pioneer or pioneer white or caper white, is a small to medium-sized butterfly of the family Pieridae—that is, the yellows and whites—which is found in South Asia, West Asia and Africa. In Africa, it is also known as the brown-veined white, and is well known during summer and autumn when large numbers migrate north-east over the interior.
The upperside of males is white with the forewing having the costa from base to base of vein 11 dusky black and then jet black continuing into a widened and curving short streak along the discocellulars to the lower apex of the cell; apical area diagonally with the termen black, the former with six elongate outwardly pointed spots of the ground colour enclosed one in each of the interspaces 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9. Hindwing: uniform, the black along the venation on the underside seen through by transparency; termen between veins 2 and 6 somewhat broadly black, with a series of four round spots of the ground colour in the interspaces; below vein 2 and above vein 6 the termen is very narrowly black. Underside: forewing white, markings similar, more clearly defined, the white spots within the black... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jodhpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | New Delhi | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Hyderabad | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kanpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Agra | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Salem | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Jabalpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Pune | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report a Pioneer White sighting in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, based on 59 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the most-seen of the 31 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 70%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May
In that month about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Pioneer White in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on a given day, against under 5% in August and September, the lowest months. That is one of Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park's driest months, with almost no rain against 40 mm in January.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pioneer White sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 24
Of the 24 parks where we can rate Pioneer White sightings, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park ranks 3rd at about 30%. The best odds are in Waterberg Plateau Park (Namibia, about 50%) and Ruaha National Park (Tanzania, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Pieridae
The closest relatives of the Pioneer White that you can see in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (family Pieridae, Whites, Yellows, and Sulphurs) are African Migrant (about 30%), Zebra White (about 20%) and Speckled Sulphur Tip (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pioneer White is recorded against all the insects logged in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (59 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.
