Leptotes pirithous
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
Leptotes pirithous, commonly known as Lang's short-tailed blue or common zebra blue, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. Leptotes pirithous is a small butterfly with a wingspan of 21–29 mm (0.83–1.14 in) in males and 24–30 mm (0.94–1.18 in) in females. The uppersides of the wings are purple bluish in males, bluish brown in female. The undersides are dark beige striped with white lines. The hindwings show marginal orange and black spots and two small tails. For the design of the undersides of the wings they can be confused with Lampides boeticus and Cacyreus marshalli.
T. telicanus Lang (? = pirithous L., baeticus Esp.) (77 h; the figure marked male represents a small female). (male violet-blue, female smoky grey with the disc of the forewing bluish white, the intricate markings of the underside
appear also above. The underside has on a smoky grey ground a confusion of white lines and rings and around the anal spots of the hindwing very thin blue rings which glitter intensely. South Europe and North Africa, as well as Asia Minor. The form bellieri Ragusa, from Sicily has the underside more unicolorous, washed out. — Larva dark red,... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Picos de Europa National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 6 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 7 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Lang's Short-Tailed Blue sighting in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, based on 93 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 42nd most-seen of the 597 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Lang's Short-Tailed Blue in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, against under 5% in November to May, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lang's Short-Tailed Blue sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
4th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Lang's Short-Tailed Blue sightings, Sierra de Guadarrama National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Picos de Europa National Park (Spain, about 30%), Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain, about 20%) and Doñana National Park (Spain, about 10%).
Same family: Lycaenidae
The closest relatives of the Lang's Short-Tailed Blue that you can see in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (family Lycaenidae, Gossamer-winged Butterflies) are Small Copper (about 30%), Southern Brown Argus (about 20%) and Iberian Sooty Copper (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lang's Short-Tailed Blue is recorded against all the insects logged in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (93 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.
