Platycheirus scutatus (Meigen, 1822)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 4. according to Ball & Morris, 2024[^HKB6B3NI]

Synonymy

This species was separated from Platycheirus splendidus by Rotheray (1998)[^Q8VGIMFU] and from P. aurolateralis by Stubbs (2002)[^72NDFIFY].

Biology

The larva preys on a variety of aphid species on low growing plants, bushes and low tree foliage. A species of woodland edge (both coniferous and deciduous) and scrub, including hedgerows, parks and mature gardens. Adults are usually found resting on sun-lit vegetation or visiting a wide range of flowers in clearings, tacksides, etc. It is multiple brooded and has a long flight period.

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

It remains a very common species that occurs widely throughout the British Isles but is as yet less well recorded from northerly areas.

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.