Platycheirus tarsalis (Schummel, 1837)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 2. according to Ball & Morris, 2024[^HKB6B3NI]

Biology

A woodland species that is typically found along herb-rich rides, woodland edges or hedgerows. In spring it is most often found visiting the flowers of Garlic Mustard Alliaria petiolata but it will visit a range of other flowers such as Greater Stitchwort Stellaria holostea. The larva is unknown.

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 much of southern England as far north as southern Lancashire. It is apparently absent from much of Wales and from East Anglia. Overall it occurs north to the highlands of Scotland.

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.