Criorhina berberina
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Criorhina berberina is a species of hoverfly. It is found in the Palaearctic from Fennoscandia South to Iberia and Italy. Ireland eastwards through Europe into Turkey and European Russia. C. berberina is a bumblebee mimic. The body has uniformly long dense pubescence, obscuring the ground-colour. There are two forms one with the pubescence more or less extensively blackish (typical berberina), one in which it is entirely yellow or tawny (berberina var. oxyacanthae Meigen). Criorhina differ from other bumblebee mimics - Mallota, Arctophila, Pocota and Brachypalpus by the form of their antennae: the first segments are thin and form a stalk, the third segment is shorter than it is wide. In Criorhina, the face projects downwards, in contrast to Pocota and Brachypalpus.
Larvae of C. berberina are associated with rotting deciduous wood. These include white umbellifers, Allium ursinum, Cornus sanguinea, Crataegus, Euonymus, Filipendula, Frangula alnus, Hypericum, Lonicera xylosteum, Photinia, Ranunculus, Rhamnus catharticus, Rhododendron, Rosa, Rubus idaeus, Salix, Sorbus, Taraxacum and Viburnum opulus. The flight period is May to July.
C. berberina is a bioindicator. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Essen | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Criorhina berberina sighting in Essen on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 282nd most-seen of the 434 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.
May and June
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Criorhina berberina in Essen on a given day, against under 5% in July to April, the lowest months.
Only Essen, in our data
Essen is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Criorhina berberina sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Syrphidae
The closest relatives of the Criorhina berberina that you can see in Essen (family Syrphidae, Hover Flies) are Marmalade Hover Fly (about 20%), Common Drone Fly (about 10%) and Yellow-Haired Sun Fly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Criorhina berberina is recorded against all the insects logged in Essen (19 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.
