Phoebis philea
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Phoebis philea, the orange-barred sulphur, is a species of butterfly found in the Americas including the Caribbean. The wingspan is 68 to 80 mm. There are two to three generations per year in Florida and one in the northern part of the range with adults on wing from mid to late summer. The species habitat is in tropical scrub, gardens, fields, and forest edges. Orange-barred sulphurs are often found in large dense groups of mixed species, including the statira sulphur (Aphrissa statira), apricot sulphur (Phoebis argante), and the straight-line sulphur (Rhabdodryas trite). The species eats nectar from red-colored plants.
The larvae feed on Cassia species. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ostional Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Lago de Yojoa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 4 | Tenorio Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | Arenal Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Soberanía National Park | 🇵🇦 Panama | |
| 8 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toluca | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 2 | Mexico City | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 3 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Porto Alegre | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Puebla | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 6 | São Paulo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Curitiba | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 10 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-Barred Sulphur sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 104th most-seen of the 189 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April, July, September and November–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-Barred Sulphur in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in January–March, May–June, August and October, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Orange-Barred Sulphur sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 8
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Orange-Barred Sulphur sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 6th at about 10%. The best odds are in Ostional Wildlife Refuge (Costa Rica, about 20%), Serra dos Órgãos National Park (Brazil, about 20%) and Lago de Yojoa (Honduras, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Orange-Barred Sulphur is recorded against all the insects logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (10 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.
