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Melangyna umbellatarum (Fabricius, 1794)

Identification

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

Synonymy

Syrphus umbellatarum Fabricius in Coe(1953)2.

Biology

The larva is aphidophagous, and appear to have a clear preference for Cavariella aphids on white umbels. Adults are usually found in or near woodland, especially on the flowers of Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium and Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris. Males hover high over paths and clearings.

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

Widely distributed but scarce south of a line between the Ribble and Humber Estuaries. It is much scarcer in northern England, but extends into northern Scotland. This species can be confused with M. compositarum and M. labiatarum and is very difficult to separate from M. ericarum, so care is needed. 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. ↩