Palpopleura lucia
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Palpopleura lucia, the Lucia widow, is a species of dragonfly in the family Libellulidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and possibly Burundi. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, rivers, intermittent rivers, shrub-dominated wetlands, swamps, freshwater lakes, intermittent freshwater lakes, freshwater marshes, intermittent freshwater marshes, and freshwater springs.
Lucia widow Species text in the Online Atlas of South African Odonata Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | South Luangwa National Park | 🇿🇲 Zambia | |
| 3 | iSimangaliso Wetland Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Gonarezhou National Park | 🇿🇼 Zimbabwe | |
| 5 | Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 7 | Kibale National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Odzala-Kokoua National Park | 🇨🇬 Republic of the Congo |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kigali | 🇷🇼 Rwanda | |
| 2 | Abidjan | 🇨🇮 Côte d'Ivoire | |
| 3 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 4 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 5 | Dar es-Salaam | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 6 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 7 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 8 | Durban | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 9 | Nairobi | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow sighting in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, based on 28 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 3rd most-seen of the 59 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and October
In those months about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Lucia Widow in uMkhuze Game Reserve on a given day, against under 5% in May, July, September and November, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Lucia Widow sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Yes
Of the 8 parks where we can rate Lucia Widow sightings, uMkhuze Game Reserve has the highest daily chance: about 40%. Next come South Luangwa National Park (Zambia, about 30%) and iSimangaliso Wetland Park (South Africa, about 30%).
Same family: Libellulidae
The closest relatives of the Lucia Widow that you can see in uMkhuze Game Reserve (family Libellulidae, Skimmers) are Southern Banded Groundling (about 50%), Broad Scarlet (about 40%) and Violet Dropwing (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Lucia Widow is recorded against all the insects logged in uMkhuze Game Reserve (28 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.
