Reduvius personatus
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Reduvius personatus or the masked hunter is an insect belonging to the assassin bug (Reduviidae) family. The name is because its nymphs camouflage themselves with dust. The masked hunter is a predator of small arthropods, including woodlice, lacewings, earwigs, bed bugs and termites. Masked hunters do not feed on human blood, but can deliver a rostral stab to humans in self-defense when mishandled. The stab can be painful, but masked hunters do not carry Chagas disease, unlike the kissing bug for which they are sometimes mistaken.
Adult masked hunters are uniformly dark brown to black in color and vary in length from 17–22 mm. They have an elongated head that includes a short, three-segmented beak, as well as long, slender antennae. Their abdomen is wide, extending in the middle beyond the wings to reveal the lateral margins of their abdominal segments. Nymphs of this species resemble the adult form and are naturally dark-colored, but often appear gray or light-colored due to a camouflage layer of debris covering them. Nymphs exude a sticky substance that covers their entire body, including the antennae and all six legs, which causes dust, lint, and other small... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 2 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Sierra de Guadarrama National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Detroit | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Kharkiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 3 | Salt Lake City | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Toronto | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Montreal | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 6 | Denver | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Bucharest | 🇷🇴 Romania | |
| 8 | Philadelphia | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | Kyiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 10 | Essen | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Hunter sighting in Philadelphia on a given day, based on 71 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 98th most-seen of the 632 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, March, May–August and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Hunter in Philadelphia on a given day, against under 5% in February, April, September and November–December, the lowest months.
Between 10 pm and 1 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Masked Hunter sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is seen both by day and at night.
Among the best
Of the 22 cities where we can rate Masked Hunter sightings, Philadelphia ranks 8th at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Detroit (United States, about 10%), Kharkiv (Ukraine, about 10%) and Salt Lake City (United States, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Masked Hunter is recorded against all the insects logged in Philadelphia (71 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.
