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Meligramma guttatum (Fallén, 1817)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 4. magnifier_icon camera_filled_icon according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Synonymy

Syrphus guttatus Fallén in Coe(1953)2, Melangyna guttata (Fallén) in Stubbs & Falk (1983)3.

Biology

This is a woodland species that occurs on wooded riverbanks, wet woodland and carr and in northern Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus woods. The larva is predaceous upon aphids and have been recorded feeding upon the aphid Drepanosiphum platanoides on Sycamore. The adults are flower visitors and have been recorded at Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium.

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. Rare (RDB3) - Shirt, 19876.

Distribution

This is a widely distributed species across England, Scotland and Wales, but one that appears to be somewhat more frequent in northern England. Post-1990 records include East Cornwall, North and South Somerset, Carmarthenshire, Glamorganshire, Meirionnydd, Derbyshire, South Yorkshire, Westmorland, Ayrshire, North Ebudes and East Invernesshire. 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. ↩

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