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Eupeodes nitens (Zetterstedt, 1843)

Identification

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

Synonymy

Syrphus nitens Zetterstedt in Coe(1953)2, Metasyrphus nitens (Zetterstedt) in Stubbs & Falk (1983)3.

Biology

The larva is predaceous upon aphids on shrubs, with reports of associations with aphids on Black Currant Ribes nigrum, Elderberry Sambucus nigra and Spindle Euonymus europaeus.

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, 20144. Notable - Falk, 19915.

Distribution

The majority of records are southern or western and are largely confined to England. Obvious centres of population lie in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey with a further concentration of records along the Severn valley and the Welsh Marches. The most northerly records are from southern Cumbria and County Durham. 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. Coe, R. (1953). Diptera: Syrphidae. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects, 10(1), 1–98. ↩

  3. Stubbs, A., & Falk, S. (1983). British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide (1st ed.). Reading: BENHS. ↩

  4. 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. ↩

  5. 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. ↩