Acontia lucida
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Acontia lucida, the pale shoulder, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. This species can be found in most of Europe, east to Turkey, Iran and India. It has also been recorded from Algeria. It is a rare migrant to the south coast of Great Britain. The pale shoulder can be found in grasslands, dry meadows, steppes, dunes and roadsides, where the host plants are present.
The wingspan of Acontia lucida can reach 26–30 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen are white. The forewings show a greyish-white front part and a wide dark brown median band, dark mottled and marbled, larger in the centre. A white mark is present on the outer edge of the forewings, while a brown mark is close to the apex. Hindwings are whitish fuscous, with a brown band near the apex. Larvae are green or brown, with transversal whitish bands.
The larvae are polyphagous, feeding on various herbaceous plants, mainly on mallow (Malva species), common marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), goosefoots (Chenopodium) and dandelion (Taraxacum). Adults are on the wing on... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Doñana National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Shoulder sighting in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 300th most-seen of the 597 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pale Shoulder in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park on a given day, against under 5% in October to May, the lowest months. Those are among Sierra de Guadarrama National Park's driest months, with about 40 mm of rain a month against 110 mm in November.
Between 9 pm and midnight
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pale Shoulder sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Pale Shoulder sightings, Sierra de Guadarrama National Park ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Sierra Nevada National Park (Spain, about 10%), Cévennes National Park (France, about 10%) and Doñana National Park (Spain, about 10%).
Same family: Noctuidae
The closest relatives of the Pale Shoulder that you can see in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (family Noctuidae, Cutworm Moths and Allies) are Silver Υ (about 10%), Turnip Moth (about 10%) and Common Quaker (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pale Shoulder is recorded against all the insects logged in Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (11 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.
