Cheilosia scutellata (Fallén, 1817)

Identification

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

Biology

The larva inhabits the fruiting bodies of large fungi, including Boletus, Polyporus, etc. The occupied fruiting body loses its shape and becomes a deliquescent mass on the ground. Adults are usually found in deciduous and coniferous woodland and may be common on the flowers of white umbels such as Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium and Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa. They are often to be found resting on foliage of bushes and tall herbs in dappled sunlight along glades and track-sides.

Flight period

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

Distribution

Frequent in well-wooded areas in southern Britain but scarce north of the Humber, with a few widely scattered records extending as far as the Inverness area.

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.