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Classification:

Criorhina berberina belongs to the subfamily Eristalinae, tribe Milesiini.

Distribution:

Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees and northen Spain; from Ireland eastwards through central Europe to European parts of Russia and Turkey; Italy; the former Yugoslavia, Romania.

Habitat:

Deciduous and coniferous forest with overmature trees and well-developed herb and shrub layers.

Description:

Criorhina berberina is an 8 - 13 mm long, very dense hairy hoverfly with a bumblebee-like appearance, which occurs in two different color forms. In the more common form berberina the thorax is yellow hairy and the abdomen is at the base black and at the end whitish yellow hairy. The rarer color form oxyacanthae has a uniform yellow hairiness. Criorhina berberina has reddish-yellow antennae, black legs and thornless, barely thickened femora.

Biology:

Criorhina berberina flies from Mai to September. Adults are often seen visiting flowers or resting on sunlit foliage. Females can be found flying around at the base of old living trees, stumps and near dead or dying trees searching for suited places for oviposition. The larvae develop in moist decaying wood of dead tree roots, in cavities of fallen trunks and the heart-rot of living trees. Larvae were found on beech (fagus), ash (Fraxinus) and birch (betula).

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