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Platycheirus nielseni Vockeroth, 1990

Identification

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

Synonymy

Platycheirus species A in Stubbs & Falk (1983)2. This species was split from P. peltatus by Vockeroth (1990)3.

Biology

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.

Flight period

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

Distribution

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. Distribution map for Platycheirus nielseni

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 Platycheirus nielseni

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

  2. Stubbs, A., & Falk, S. (1983). British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide (1st ed.). Reading: BENHS. ↩

  3. Vockeroth, J. (1990). Revision of the Nearctic species of Platycheirus (Diptera, Syrphidae). Canadian Entomologist, 122, 659–766. ↩