Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods) ➔ Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods) ➔ Class Insecta (Insects) ➔ Order Diptera (True flies) ➔ Family Syrphidae (Hoverflies)

Parasyrphus lineolus (Zetterstedt, 1843)

Dunkle Blattlausschwebfliege

Synonyms and other combinations:

Scaeva lineolus Zetterstedt, 1843 | Syrphus unifasciatus Strobl, 1910 |

  • Parasyrphus lineolus, female 590
    Parasyrphus lineolus (Zetterstedt, 1843)  Dunkle Blattlausschwebfliege   
    Parasyrphus lineolus, female
    DE, Chemnitz, Hutholz; 2008-04-30 13:29:15
    Image number: 590
    female
    DE, Chemnitz, Hutholz
    2008-04-30 13:29:15

Classification:
Parasyrphus lineolus belongs to the subfamily Syrphinae, tribe Syrphini.
Distribution:
From Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees; from Ireland eastwards through central and southern Europe (northern Italy, Balkans) into Russia; from the Urals through Siberia to the Pacific coast (Kamchatka, Sakhalin); North America from Alaska to Quebec and south to Colorado and New Mexico.
Habitat:
Forest, preferably in conifer forest.
Description:
Body length 8-10 mm; abdomen with yellow bands; face yellow with black center-line; antennae black; pterostigma black-brown; fore and middle tarsi black, 1st tarsomer yellow in the female; fore and middle tibiae yellow in the female and yellow with black ring in the male.
Similar species:
Parasyrphus lineolus can easily be confused with Parasyrphus vittiger, which has a yellow-brown pterostigma, and with some Epistrophe and Syrphus species.
Biology:
Parasyrphus lineolus flies in two generations from April to September. The males hover in forest glades and above forest paths at a height of several meters. The largely arboreal imagines visit the flowers of trees, shrubs and various herbaceous plants.
The larvae of Parasyrphus lineolus feed on aphids (Adelgidae, Aphididae). Larvae of the species were found in the crowns of spruce and wintered in the soil litter.
Annotation:
Parasyrphus lineolus (Zetterstedt, 1843) = Parasyrphus lineola (Zetterstedt, 1843)

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