Sericomyia lappona (Linnaeus, 1758)

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Identification

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

Biology

The larva is of the 'long-tailed', aquatic type, and is associated with peaty pools and boggy stream-sides in moorland and with wet woodland, such as Salix carr. Adults are usually seen visiting flowers, or basking on sun-lit foliage, rocks, etc., near larval habitat. In southern England, this species is associated with sandy, acid heathland, not always in wet areas. It tends to occur earlier in the year than S. silentis, although they are not infrequently seen together.

Flight period

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

Distribution

Very similar in distribution to S. silentis (the two species often occur together), but less abundant and more strictly confined to bogs, especially in southern Britain.

Trends

The following plots show the Frescalo TFactor vs year and a map of the rescaled frequency (all records) for the species.