Sphaerophoria taeniata (Meigen, 1822)

Identification

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

Biology

Larva unknown, but it has been reared from a puparium found on a Common Reed Phragmites australis stem. It is generally found in rich, unimproved, damp grassland, often with rushes Juncus sp, but also in open areas in damp woodland and scrub. Adults fly low amongst the vegetation and visit flowers such as buttercups Ranunculus sp. and yellow composites.

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

A rather scarce and local species of southern Britain, with a few records in the Welsh borders and the fens of Anglesey. Its distribution is notably disjunct with several records from northern Scotland, including a record from north of Inverness.

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.