Locust Blowfly

Locust Blowfly

Stomorhina lunata

Daily sighting probability <5% · Rare
at Lisbon

In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%

31 Verified sightings at Lisbon
69 In all 6 parks From 2019 to 2026
November Best month
☀️ Diurnal When it's spotted

About the Locust Blowfly

Stomorhina lunata is a species of fly in the family Rhiniidae first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1805. This species is present in most of Europe, the Afrotropical realm, the eastern Palearctic realm, the Near East and North Africa, the Indomalayan realm, and the Nearctic realm. These flies usually inhabit meadows.

Stomorhina lunata can reach a length of 5–9 millimetres (0.20–0.35 in) and a wingspan of 13–16 millimetres (0.51–0.63 in). These distinctive, medium-sized blowflies are rather similar to the house flies, but they have a characteristic prominent proboscis, a longitudinally striped thorax and an abdomen with yellow and black bands. Males have large orange patches on the sides of tergites 3 and 4, while females only show grey dust patches.

This distinctively marked species is often misidentified because of the unusual band pattern in the abdomen, typical of hoverflies. Stomorhina lunata is an important egg predator of some major African agricultural pests, the South African brown locust (Locustana pardalina), the more widespread desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), and the migratory locust (Locustana... Wikipedia →

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Sierra Nevada National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
~10%
2 Cévennes National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
3 Pyrénées National Park 🇫🇷 France
~10%
4 Sierra de Guadarrama National Park 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%
5 Wadden Sea National Park 🇩🇪 Germany
<5%
6 Table Mountain National Park 🇿🇦 South Africa
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Barcelona 🇪🇸 Spain
~10%
2 Lyon 🇫🇷 France
~10%
3 Cologne 🇩🇪 Germany
~10%
4 Brussels 🇧🇪 Belgium
~10%
5 Lisbon 🇵🇹 Portugal
<5%
6 Porto 🇵🇹 Portugal
<5%
7 Paris 🇫🇷 France
<5%
8 Birmingham 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
<5%
9 Madrid 🇪🇸 Spain
<5%
10 Munich 🇩🇪 Germany
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing a Locust Blowfly in Lisbon?

Rare

Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Locust Blowfly sighting in Lisbon on a given day, based on 31 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 136th most-seen of the 441 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.

When is the best time to see a Locust Blowfly in Lisbon?

May and October–December

In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Locust Blowfly in Lisbon on a given day, against under 5% in January–April and June–September, the lowest months. Those are among Lisbon's wettest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against almost none in July.

What time of day is best to see a Locust Blowfly?

Between 10 am and 1 pm

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Locust Blowfly sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.

Is Lisbon the best place to see a Locust Blowfly?

5th of 13

Of the 13 cities where we can rate Locust Blowfly sightings, Lisbon ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Barcelona (Spain, about 10%), Lyon (France, about 10%) and Cologne (Germany, about 10%).

Where does the Locust Blowfly sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Locust Blowfly is recorded against all the insects logged in Lisbon (31 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.

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