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Melangyna cincta (Fallén, 1817)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 3. magnifier_icon camera_filled_icon according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Synonymy

Syrphus cinctus Fallén in Coe(1953)2. Melangyna cincta (Fallén) in Stubbs & Falk (1983)3. Fagisyrphus cinctus in Bot & van de Meutter (2023)4.

Biology

The larva is aphidophagous, appearing to favour Phyllaphis fagi on Beech Fagus sylvatica, but with records from aphids on Oak Quercus, Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus and Lime Tilia sp. which are reinforced by the widespread distribution of records in areas not noted for their Beech woods. This is a species is typically found in glades, rides and edges, but can also occur around scrub and mature hedges. Adults are usually seen visiting flowers and are especially fond of white umbels along wooded tracksides. Males hover at some height over tracks and clearings in woodland.

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

Distribution

Most records lie south of a line between the Solway and Humber Estuaries but there are scattered records to Sutherland. 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. Bot, S., & van de Meutter, F. (2023). Hoverflies of Britain and North-Western Eupope. Bloomsbury Wildlife. London: Bloomsbury Publishing. ↩