Gelastocoris oculatus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Gelastocoris oculatus, the big-eyed toad bug, is a species of toad bug in the family Gelastocoridae. It is found in Central America and North America. North of Mexico, it is found in 28 continental United States and 3 provinces of Canada. They are riparian insects that are found near the shores of freshwater lentic and lotic systems. They prefer damp substrates over saturated substrates. Their coloration, morphology, and hopping behavior resembles toads. Toad bugs use their cryptic coloration to blend in with the sand, soil, or pebble-rich substrate of their habitats to avoid predation. They are able to leap many times their body length to avoid predation, and can swim short distances. Both G. oculatus adults and nymphs capture smaller insects by jumping on them, and consume them with their piercing sucking mouthparts. Females lay their eggs under rocks or in sand or mud, and nymphs have 5 instars.
They are most active in spring to autumn and those in the northern range hibernate. Adults have been known to congregate sometimes. These two subspecies belong to the species Gelastocoris oculatus: Gelastocoris oculatus oculatus (Fabricius, 1798)
Gelastocoris oculatus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Redwood National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Shenandoah National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Great Smoky Mountains National Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Everglades National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sacramento | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Washington | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Dallas | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | Austin | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | Portland | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 7 | Los Angeles | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 8 | Houston | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 9 | New York City | 🇺🇸 United States |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Big-Eyed Toad Bug sighting in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 441st most-seen of the 822 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.
April, June, August and October–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Big-Eyed Toad Bug in Great Smoky Mountains National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, July, September and December–March, the lowest months.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Big-Eyed Toad Bug sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 4
Of the 4 parks where we can rate Big-Eyed Toad Bug sightings, Great Smoky Mountains National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Redwood National Park (United States, about 10%) and Shenandoah National Park (United States, about 10%).
Same order: Hemiptera
The closest relatives of the Big-Eyed Toad Bug that you can see in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (order Hemiptera, True Bugs, Hoppers, Aphids, and allies) are Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (about 20%), Kudzu Bug (about 20%) and Acanthocephala terminalis (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Big-Eyed Toad Bug is recorded against all the insects logged in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
