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Chrysotoxum festivum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 2. according to Ball & Morris, 2024¹

Biology

The larva and puparium of this species have been described by Speight (1976)² who found a mature larva with the black ant Lasius niger under a stone in a scrubby pasture. Adults are fast-flying and visit a wide range of flowers. They are normally found in grassy places near the shelter of woodland edge, scrub or hedgerows. Males hover at 2-4m.

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, occurring most frequently south of a line between Morecambe Bay and the Humber, although there are several noteworthy records from northern Scotland. This is mainly a coastal species in Scotland. There is some evidence of a northward expansion of range since 2000.

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.