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Cheilosia mutabilis (Fallén, 1817)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 4. microscope_icon camera_icon_cross according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Biology

The larva has been found in the roots of Welted Thistle Carduus crispus, but as this is not a heathland species and C. mutabilis is also known from heathland, it must be assumed that a variety of host thistles are utilised. Adults rarely occur in numbers, most frequently being found as single individuals.

Flight period

The following plots show the number of unique records per week that were not reported to be of eggs, larvae or pupae. phenology

Status

Lower Risk (Nationall scarce) - Ball & Morris, 20142. Notable - Falk, 19913. Rare (RDB3) - Shirt, 19874.

Distribution

Widely distributed as far as northern Scotland but with very noticeable concentrations of records in South Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Elsewhere, records are mainly scattered and offer no obvious pattern. dotmap

Trends

The following plots show the Frescalo TFactor vs year and a map of the rescaled frequency (all records) for the species. For an explanation see here. trend

  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. ↩

  4. Shirt, D. (Ed.). (1987). Red Data Books: 2. Insects. Peterborough: NCC. ↩