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Syrphus torvus Osten Sacken, 1875

Identification

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

Biology

The larva feeds on a wide range of ground layer and arboreal aphids. Adults visit a wide range of flowers and often found around trees, typically along woodland edge and hedgerows, as well as in orchards and mature gardens. Like S. ribesii, it is multiple-brooded and has a long season, but it tends to show marked, and quite brief peaks of abundance in the spring and again in mid-summer.

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

This hoverfly (especially the female) is probably overlooked amongst other Syrphus species. There has been a tendency to think of it as a southern species, but recent records suggest that it is also common in 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.