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Chrysotoxum elegans Loew, 1841

Identification

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

Biology

A larva of this species was found beneath a stone in grassland. It is believed that larvae of this genus feed on ant attended root aphids in ant nests. The adult occurs in a variety of well drained, grassy situations ranging from woodland edge and scrubby downland in south-east England, to open cliff-tops in the south west. Adults fly low and fast over low vegetation and visit flowers, including white umbels and buttercups Ranunculus sp.

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 (Nationally scarce) - Ball & Morris, 20142. Rare (RDB3) - Falk, 19913 and Shirt 1987.

Distribution

This is a southern species that is mainly found in coastal localities, especially along cliff tops such as on the Gower Peninsular and on the south coasts of Devon and Cornwall and also on chalk in Cambridgeshire. Most inland locations are south-facing Chalk grasslands. It seems to have been recorded more frequently since 2000 and there is some evidence of range expansion. 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. ↩