Platycheirus peltatus (Meigen, 1822)

Identification

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

Synonymy

Platycheirus nielseni was split from P. peltatus by Vockeroth (1990)².

Biology

The early stages of this common species require further investigation because the identification of the specimens that have been described is open to doubt. The available data suggests that the larva preys on a range of aphids in shaded, moist sites. It appears to be a more lowland species than P. nielseni, occurring in upland areas only along valley floors. It is found in damp, grassy situations along rivers and streams, in woodland rides and clearings and around large hedgerows. Adults fly low down amongst the vegetation and will settle on sun-lit leaves. Males hover over bare patches.

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 in lowlands 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.