Zerynthia rumina
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
Zerynthia rumina, the Spanish festoon, is a butterfly belonging to the family Papilionidae. It is a widespread species in Iberia and frequents most habitats. North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula and southern France. Zerynthia rumina is an extremely striking species. In south east France it can be confused with the southern festoon (Zerynthia polyxena). The two can be told apart by the presence of blue on the hindwing of the southern festoon. The Spanish festoon also has extensive red on the forewings.
T. rumina L. (10 a). At once distinguished from polyxena by the totally different underside of the hindwing, which bears whitish yellow spots at the base. Nearly all the costal spots of the forewing are marked with red. The 3 or 4 black parallel cell-bars of polyxena are in rumina enlarged, being separated by thin yellow bands. In Spain and Portugal, also in Morocco and Algiers, but occurring here only in the coast districts in a slightly different form (10 a). — In ab. canteneri Stgr. (10 a), which occurs singly among ordinary rumina in South Spain and Morocco, the ground-colour is dark yellow, almost orange, the transparent... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monfragüe National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 3 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 4 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lisbon | 🇵🇹 Portugal |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Spanish Festoon sighting in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 43rd most-seen of the 479 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Spanish Festoon in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and July–December, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Spanish Festoon sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Spanish Festoon sightings, Sierra Nevada National Park ranks 2nd at about 20%. The best odds are in Monfragüe National Park (Spain, about 30%).
Same family: Papilionidae
The closest relatives of the Spanish Festoon that you can see in Sierra Nevada National Park (family Papilionidae, Swallowtails and Parnassians) are Iberian Scarce Swallowtail (about 30%), Old World Swallowtail (about 20%) and Apollo (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Spanish Festoon is recorded against all the insects logged in Sierra Nevada National Park (27 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.
