Bug FAQNorthern Plushback
Palpada vinetorum · Order: Diptera · Family: Syrphidae
Also called: Northern Plushback Fly
The Northern Plushback is a small flower fly about 10 to 14 mm long. It has a distinctive head with a white triangular patch, reddish-yellow antennae, and a holoptic eye arrangement in males. Its thorax shows three gray-olive crescent bands on a black base, with yellowish pleurae and a reddish-yellow scutellum edged in yellow pile.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Head: white frontal triangle, thin brown stripe on middle frons, yellow-brown pile near eyes, blackish pile near ocelli, reddish-yellow face with whitish pollen, black occiput above and white pile below, reddish-yellow antennae, bare arista, holoptic eyes in males. Thorax: three gray-olive crescent bands on a black scutum, first at front border, second before lateral suture, third broad band before scutellum; pleurae yellowish with gray pollen; scutellum reddish-yellow with lighter rear border and long yellow pile along edge.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Length ranges from 10 to 14 mm.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
It is a native flower fly found in North America, especially Texas and parts of the east coast.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Its native range is North America, primarily Texas and eastern coastal states.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 33 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Same family (Syrphidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palpada_vinetorum
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-22 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.