Mallota cimbiciformis (Fallén, 1817)

Identification

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

Biology

This is a woodland and parkland species that is associated with over-mature trees with water-filled rot-holes. The larva is a filter-feeder and develops in water-filled rot -holes in trees such as Beech Fagus sylvatica and Horse Chestnut Aesculus hippocastaneum. It occasionally strays some distance from its breeding site and has been found at Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium some distance from suitable trees.

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. Notable - Falk, 19913. Vulnerable (RDB2) - Shirt, 19874.

Distribution

This is mainly a southern English species that occurs sporadically as far north as Glasgow. There are post-1990 records from Cornwall, Dorset, North Somerset, South Hampshire, North Wiltshire, South Essex, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, South-east Yorkshire, South Lancashire Durham and Lannarkshire. 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. ↩

  4. Shirt, D. (Ed.). (1987). Red Data Books: 2. Insects. Peterborough: NCC. ↩