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Classification:

Xylota sylvarum belongs to the subfamily Eristalinae, tribe Milesiini.

Distribution:

From Fennoscandia south to Iberia; from Ireland eastwards through much of northern and central Eurasia to the Pacific coast; known in southern Europe from Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey.

Habitat:

Forest edges and open areas of humid dediduous and mixed forest with mature and over-mature trees, also urban parks; along streams in broad-leaved evergreen oak forest.

Description:

Body length 11 - 16 mm; males much larger than females; abdomen black, at the end dense and golden yellow hairy; hind tibiae black at the apex.

Similar species:

The similar looking Xylota xanthocnema has entirely yellow hind tibiae.

Biology:

Xylota sylvarum flies from end of May to September. It is not clear whether the summer animals represent a second generation or later emerged offspring from the previous year.
Xylota sylvarum occasionally visits the flowers of umbellifers, Ranunculus and Rubus idaeus. The adults also eat pollen grains that have fallen on leaves.
The saproxylic larvae live in moist, fungus-infested, decaying wood, under the bark of tree trunks and stumps, as well as in decaying tree roots of deciduous and coniferous trees. Larvae of the species were found in decaying dead wood of beech, oak, ash, aspen, fir, pine, spruce, douglas-fir and moist sawdust.
Xylota sylvarum overwinters as a larva.

References, further reading, links:

1. 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.
2. Gerald Bothe: Bestimmungsschlüssel für die Schwebfliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) Deutschlands und der Niederlande, DJN, 1984, ISBN 3-923376-07-3
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.
4. 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.
5. 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