Platycheirus angustatus (Zetterstedt, 1843)

Identification

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

Biology

The larva feeds on aphids within the ground layer. Found in damp grassland situations such as marsh, fen and seasonally flooded, unimproved grassland. Adults fly low down amongst tall, emergent vegetation and are usually found by sweeping. Visits a range of flowers including the flower heads of sedges, plantains and grasses.

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

Widespread and common throughout Britain.

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.