Syrphus vitripennis Meigen, 1822

Identification

Identification difficulty = 5. according to Ball & Morris, 2024¹

Biology

The larva feeds on aphids on a wide range of trees and shrubs. It is found in all types of woodland, scrub and hedgerow situations including urban parks and gardens. Adults visit a wide range of flowers and males hover high in the canopy. It is believed to be highly migratory and numbers are probably reinforced in some years by immigrants from the continent.

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

Although common and widespread throughout Britain this species undergoes considerable fluctuations in abundance. These differences in abundance may be related to native populations being boosted by arrivals from the continent.

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.