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Eupeodes nielseni (Dušek & Láska, 1976)

Identification

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

Synonymy

Metasyrphus nielseni Dusek & Laska in Stubbs & Falk (1983)2.

Biology

The larva is predaceous upon aphids and adelgids on Larch Larix and Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris. Adults are flower visitors. The main centre of population in Scotland seems to have been Caledonian pinewoods, but today that link is much weaker as E. nielseni now occurs in a wide range of conifer woodlands.

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, 20143. Notable - Falk, 19914.

Distribution

There are two very distinct populations, one in the Scottish Highlands; the other in Dorset. There are also scattered records across England, Wales and Southern Scotland that suggest that this species is more widely distributed than current data suggest. 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. Stubbs, A., & Falk, S. (1983). British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide (1st ed.). Reading: BENHS. ↩

  3. 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. ↩

  4. 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. ↩