Pipiza austriaca Meigen, 1822

Identification

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

Biology

The larvae of this genus are aphidophagous, generally favouring aphids which secrete a waxy flocculence (woolly aphids). But the larva of this species has been reared on Cavariella aphids on Hogweed Heracleum sphondylium. Adults are usually found resting on vegetation along woodland margins, although they occasionally visit flowers.

Flight period

The following plots show the number of unique records per week that were not reported to be of eggs, larvae or pupae.

Distribution

This is one of the most readily identified Pipiza and consequently is probably better recorded than many others in this genus. Widespread but local in southern England, apparently becoming scarcer to the west and north, with records extending into southern and central Scotland.

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.