Platycheirus albimanus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Platycheirus albimanus is a common widespread species of hoverfly. A holarctic species its range includes Greenland, Iceland, Britain, mainland Europe, Russia, across Siberia to the pacific coast, the Philippines, Alaska, western Canada and United States.
The larvae feed on aphids on a wide range of plants, shrubs and trees. Adults can be found in flight generally between April and October on the edges of woodland or scrub, heath or along hedgerows where they visit a wide range of flowers.
External images external images For terms see Morphology of Diptera Wing cell bm with a small to rather large bare area (not trichose) Tibiae 1 abruptly dilated shortly before the apex. Metatarsus 1 posterior edge slightly curved. Face in front view, dusted silverish. Tergites with markings silvery or obscure yellow. Extremely similar in appearance to the southern European P. muelleri and the northern European P. nigrofemoratus and P. urakawensis. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Leeds | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Vienna | 🇦🇹 Austria |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter sighting in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, based on 8 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 189th most-seen of the 300 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.
May and June
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter in Cairngorms National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to April, the lowest months.
Between noon and 3 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Cairngorms National Park, in our data
Cairngorms National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Syrphidae
The closest relatives of the Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter that you can see in Cairngorms National Park (family Syrphidae, Hover Flies) are Tapered Drone Fly (about 20%), Yellow-Barred Peat Hover Fly (about 20%) and Pellucid Hover Fly (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Grey-Spotted Sedgesitter is recorded against all the insects logged in Cairngorms National Park (8 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.
