Cheilosia vulpina (Meigen, 1822)

Identification

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

Biology

The larva has been found in decaying roots of cultivated Globe Artichoke Cynara scolymus in France. Adults are usually found visiting flowers of white umbels such as Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium in open deciduous and coniferous woodland and unimproved grassland, usually on well drained soils.

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

This is primarily a southern species that is commonest south of a line from the Wash to the Severn. There is also a strong concentration of records from the Welsh borders and a few scattered records from Yorkshire into Scotland.

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.