Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) ➔ Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods) ➔ Class Insecta (Insects) ➔ Order Diptera (True flies) ➔ Family Syrphidae (Hoverflies)
Syritta pipiens (Linnaeus, 1758)
Gemeine Keulenschwebfliege Thick legged Hoverfly
Synonyms and other combinations:
Musca pipines Fourcroy, 1785 | Spheginoides tenofemorus Dzhafarova, 1974 | Syritta albicincta Abreu, 1924 | Syritta flavicans Szilady, 1940 | Syritta obscuripes Strobl, 1899 | Syritta vicina Szilady, 1940 | Xylota proxima Say, 1824 |
Classification:
Syritta pipiens belongs to the subfamily Eristalinae, tribe Milesiini.Distribution:
Becoming cosmopolitan; known from most of the Palaearctic, including North Africa, most of North America, South America and the Oriental region.Habitat:
Different habitats: preferably open, moist and nutritious biotopes; along the margin of almost any flowing and stagnant freshwater body, also in farmland, gardens and parks.Description:
Body length 8 - 9 mm; thorax on the sides (pleurae) grayish white dusted; abdomen with 2 - 3 pairs of pale yellow spots; face white, antennae bright red; hind femora strongly thickened; fore and mid femora dorsally with a brown streak of variable proportions; fore and mid tibiae darkened apically.Biology:
Syritta pipiens flies from March to November, in southern Europe probably all the year round. The adults fly low in the vegetation and visit a wide range of flowering plants.The larvae of Syritta pipiens live in various types of decaying organic matter, such as plant stalks, foliage, compost heaps and dung, but not in decaying wood or aquatic habitats.
The species probably overwinters as a 3rd instar larva.
Natural Enemies:
Medophron afflictor (Gravenhorst, 1829) and Rhembobius perscrutator (Thunberg, 1822) from the family Ichneumonidae.References, further reading, links:
- Pape T. & Thompson F.C. (eds) (2017). Systema Dipterorum (version 2.0, Jan 2011). In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 2017 Annual Checklist (Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds.). Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2017. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-884X.
- Gerald Bothe: Bestimmungsschlüssel für die Schwebfliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) Deutschlands und der Niederlande, DJN, 1984, ISBN 3-923376-07-3
- M.C.D.Speight: Species Accounts of European Syrphidae (Diptera), Glasgow 2011, Syrph the Net, the database of European Syrphidae, vol. 65, 285 pp., Syrph the Net publications, Dublin.
- Menno Reemer, Willem Renema, Wouter van Steenis, Theo Zeegers, Aat Barendregt, John T. Smit, Mark P. van Veen, Jeroen van Steenis, Laurens van der Leij: De Nederlandse Zweefvliegen (Diptera: Syrphidae), Nederlandse Fauna 8, 2009.
- Speight, M.C.D. & Sarthou, J.-P. (2014) StN keys for the identification of the European species of various genera of Syrphidae (Diptera) 2014 / Clés StN pour la détermination des espèces Européennes de plusieurs genres des Syrphidae (Diptères) 2014. Syrph the Net, the database of European Syrphidae, Vol. 80, 125 pp, Syrph the Net publications, Dublin
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