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Melangyna quadrimaculata (Verrall, 1873)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 3. microscope_icon camera_icon_question according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Synonymy

Syrphus quadrimaculatus Verrall in Coe(1953)2.

Biology

The larva is aphidophagous, and appear to have a clear preference for adelgids on Firs Abies sp. This is a woodland species. Adults are active very early in the spring when they usually visit flowering trees such as sallows Salix sp. and Hazel Corylus avellana catkins in clearings and rides. It flies relatively high in the canopy and is most readily caught using a net with a telescopic handle.

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

There are scattered records throughout mainland Britain but there are localised concentrations that probably indicate local recorder effort. This species is probably much more widely distributed than records suggest because it flies very early in the spring. 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. ↩