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Cheilosia barbata Loew, 1857

Identification

Identification difficulty = 3. microscope_icon camera_icon_cross according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Biology

Very little is known about the biology of this species. The larva is undescribed. Adults occur on Chalk downs or in woodlands on clay, or occasionally on sandy soils, as in Surrey where they visit a wide range of white and yellow flowers including most white umbels and Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa.

Flight period

The following plots show the number of unique records per week excluding those reported to be of immature stages. Phenology plots for Cheilosia barbata

Status

Lower Risk (Nationally scarce) - Ball & Morris, 20142. Notable - Falk, 19913.

Distribution

Mainly recorded from southern downland extending from Kent, through Surrey and Sussex to Hampshire, and in woodlands on the clay through Oxfordshire to Warwickshire. There is also a small population on Chalk in Cambridgeshire. Distribution map for Cheilosia barbata

Trends

The following plots show the Frescalo TFactor vs year and a map of the rescaled frequency (all records) for the species.Trend plots for Cheilosia barbata

  1. Ball, S., & Morris, R. (2024). Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland. WILDGuides (3rd ed.). Oxford: Princeton University Press. ↩

  2. Ball, S., & Morris, R. (2014). A review of the scarce and threatened flies of Great Britain. Part 6: Syrphidae. ( No. 9). Species status (pp. 1–130). Peterborough: JNCC. ↩

  3. Falk, S. (1991). A review of the scarce and threatened flies of Great Britain. ( No. 39). Research and Survey in Nature Conservation (pp. 1–194). Peterborough: NCC. ↩