Platycheirus tarsalis (Schummel, 1837)

Identification

Identification difficulty = 2. according to Ball & Morris, 2024¹

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 excluding those reported to be of immature stages.

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.