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Meliscaeva cinctella (Zetterstedt, 1843)

Identification

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

Synonymy

Syrphus cinctellus Zetterstedt in Coe(1953)2.

Biology

The larva feeds on aphids on a variety of tree species including Oak Quercus, Spruce Picea, Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris and Apple Malus. Normally found near deciduous and coniferous trees along woodland rides and edges, in open scrub, etc., where they visit flowers, including tree blossom in the spring and white umbels, amongst many others, in the summer.

Flight period

The following plots show the number of unique records per week excluding those reported to be of immature stages. Phenology plots for Meliscaeva cinctella

Distribution

A widespread and common species, perhaps more abundant in the south. Distribution map for Meliscaeva cinctella

Trends

The following plots show the Frescalo TFactor vs year and a map of the rescaled frequency (all records) for the species.Trend plots for Meliscaeva cinctella

  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. ↩