Parnassius phoebus
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
Parnassius phoebus, known as the Phoebus Apollo or small Apollo, is a butterfly species of the swallowtail butterfly family, Papilionidae, found in the Palearctic and North America. P. phoebus is found in the Alps, Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Alaska and Canada south into the northern United States.
Male: the costal spots of forewing usually without red, the anterior one sometimes with white pupil; submarginal band faint and abbreviated or interrupted; no spot at hind margin; hindwing with red ocelli which are usually small, and sometimes with a submarginal row of feebly marked black spots; the veins often marked with well-defined elongate black punctures.
Female: with better defined and more extended markings; vitreous margin of forewing separated from the submarginal band by large white uniform spots; the second costal spots often pupilled red, connected with one another by black scaling, on disc sometimes blackish shadows; on hindwing a greyish vitreous marginal band, distinct submarginal half-moons, which are contiguous, forming a band, two larger red ocelli, the posterior one occasionally with white pupil; anal spots sometimes intensified and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 2 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Denali National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Phoebus Apollo sighting in Mercantour National Park on a given day, based on 12 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 199th most-seen of the 412 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 Phoebus Apollo in Mercantour National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to June, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Phoebus Apollo sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Phoebus Apollo sightings, Mercantour National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria, about 40%), Vanoise National Park (France, about 20%) and Denali National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same genus: Parnassius
The closest relatives of the Phoebus Apollo that you can see in Mercantour National Park (genus Parnassius, Apollos) are Apollo (about 50%) and Clouded Apollo (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Phoebus Apollo is recorded against all the insects logged in Mercantour National Park (12 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.
