Identification difficulty = 3.
according to Ball & Morris, 20241
Platycheirus species A in Stubbs & Falk (1983)2. This species was split from P. peltatus by Vockeroth (1990)3.
Larva unknown. Adults can be frequent in damp places such as wet, rushy meadows and along stream sides in upland areas, usually where there is some shelter from scrub or trees. Males can be found hovering in groups in clearings and over streams, in dappled sunshine.
The following plots show the number of unique records per week that were not reported to be of eggs, larvae or pupae.
This species appears to be widespread in the north and west, including Scotland, North Wales and northern England, with some records from fairly high altitude on moorland. In the south of England there are widespread records from Dorset and Somerset and one confirmed record from the Thames marshes.
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.
Ball, S., & Morris, R. (2024). Hoverflies of Britain and Ireland. WILDGuides (3rd ed.). Oxford: Princeton University Press. ↩
Stubbs, A., & Falk, S. (1983). British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide (1st ed.). Reading: BENHS. ↩
Vockeroth, J. (1990). Revision of the Nearctic species of Platycheirus (Diptera, Syrphidae). Canadian Entomologist, 122, 659–766. ↩