Syritta pipiens
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Syritta pipiens, sometimes called the thick-legged hoverfly, is one of the most common species in the insect family Syrphidae. This fly originates from Europe and is currently distributed across Eurasia and North America. They are fast and nimble fliers, and their larvae are found in wet, rotting organic matter such as garden compost, manure, and silage. The species is also commonly found in human-created environments such as most farmland, gardens, and urban parks, wherever there are flowers. This species is an important part of its native ecosystem as adult Syritta pipiens flies are critical pollinators for a variety of flowering plants and the species supports parasitism by various parasitic wasp species. Thus, they play an important role in environmental functionality, and can serve as bio-indicators, in which their abundance can reflect the health of the environment. Syritta pipiens looks like many predatory hoverfly species, yet is not predatory.
The species Syritta pipiens is within the family of Syrphidae, commonly called hover or flower flies. Syrphidae is one of the largest families within the Diptera order and contains about 6,000 known species widely distributed... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Acadia National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Great Bear Rainforest | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 5 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 6 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Yellowstone National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Jerusalem | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 6 | Boston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Kharkiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 8 | Warsaw | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 9 | Algiers | 🇩🇿 Algeria | |
| 10 | Budapest | 🇭🇺 Hungary |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-Legged Hover Fly sighting in Toronto on a given day, based on 189 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 121st most-seen of the 1689 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.
June to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Thick-Legged Hover Fly in Toronto on a given day, against under 5% in October to May, the lowest months.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Thick-Legged Hover Fly sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
43rd of 64
Of the 64 cities where we can rate Thick-Legged Hover Fly sightings, Toronto ranks 43rd at about 10%. The best odds are in Birmingham (United Kingdom, about 20%), London (United Kingdom, about 20%) and Liverpool (United Kingdom, about 20%).
Same family: Syrphidae
The closest relatives of the Thick-Legged Hover Fly that you can see in Toronto (family Syrphidae, Hover Flies) are Eastern Calligrapher (about 10%), Margined Calligrapher (about 10%) and Transverse-Banded Flower Fly (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Thick-Legged Hover Fly is recorded against all the insects logged in Toronto (189 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.
