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Pipiza lugubris (Fabricius, 1775)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 4. microscope_icon camera_icon_question according to Ball & Morris, 20241

Biology

This appears to be a woodland species that occurs along damp rides. There are suspicions that it may be associated with locations supporting Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria. The larvae of this genus are predaceous upon aphids but the precise prey of P. lugubris is unknown. Adults have been caught from beds of Meadowsweet and Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa on a grassy verge.

Flight period

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

Status

Lower Risk (Nationally scarce) - Ball & Morris, 20142. Notable - Falk, 19913.

Distribution

This species is widely distributed across England and Wales but is largely absent from extensive areas east of the Pennines and the East Midlands. The major concentrations of records are centred upon South Lancashire, Cheshire, Dorset, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex. Distribution map for Pipiza lugubris

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 Pipiza lugubris

  1. Ball, S., & Morris, R. (2024). Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland. WILDGuides (3rd ed.). Oxford: Princeton University Press. ↩

  2. 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. ↩

  3. 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. ↩