Bug FAQCommon Thick-leg Fly
Tropidia quadrata · Order: Diptera · Family: Syrphidae
Also called: Common Thick-legged Fly
Adults are often seen on flowers where they sip nectar and collect pollen, while the larvae develop in water.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adults are called flower flies because they are frequently found on flowers feeding on nectar and pollen.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Adults live on flowers, and the larvae are aquatic.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults obtain energy from flower nectar and protein from pollen.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Its range includes Canada and the United States.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 34 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Michigan.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
What do adult common thick-leg flies eat?
They feed on nectar for energy and on pollen for protein.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Syrphidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropidia_quadrata
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-24.