Calliphora vicina
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Calliphora vicina is a member of the family Calliphoridae, which includes blow flies and bottle flies. These flies are important in the field of forensic entomology, being used to estimate the time of a person's death when a corpse is found and then examined. C. vicina is currently one of the most entomologically important fly species for this purpose because it arrives at and colonizes a body following death in consistent timeframes.
Calliphora vicina was described by the French entomologist Jean-Baptiste Robineau-Desvoidy in 1830. Its specific epithet is derived from the Latin vicinus 'neighbouring'. Calliphora vicina is closely related to Calliphora vomitoria, another species important in forensics.
Calliphora vicina is known as a blue bottle fly because of the metallic blue-gray coloration of its thorax and abdomen. It is distinguished from the commonly known C. vomitoria by its bright orange cheeks. The blue bottle fly is approximately 10–11 mm in length. The sclerites at the base of the coxa are yellow or orange. By chaetotaxy, the study of bristle arrangement, Calliphorids are characterized by having black bristles on the meron and two to three... Wikipedia →
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More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Blowfly sighting in Athens on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 106th most-seen of the 242 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.
January and February
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue Blowfly in Athens on a given day, against under 5% in June–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Athens's wettest months, with about 60 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in August.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue Blowfly sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
9th of 41
Of the 41 cities where we can rate Blue Blowfly sightings, Athens ranks 9th at about 10%. The best odds are in Ramallah (Palestine, about 30%), Jerusalem (Israel, about 20%) and Santiago (Chile, about 10%).
Same family: Calliphoridae
The closest relatives of the Blue Blowfly that you can see in Athens (family Calliphoridae, Blow Flies) are Common European Greenbottle Fly (about 10%) and Banded Blowfly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue Blowfly is recorded against all the insects logged in Athens (9 verified sightings), 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.
