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Classification:

Spilomyia saltuum belongs to the subfamily Eristalinae, tribe Milesiini.

Distribution:

From central France south to the Mediterranean; from Spain round the Mediterranean to the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and the Caucasus. Through central Europe from southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria to Hungary, Romania and southern parts of Russia.

Habitat:

Thermophilous and evergreen Quercus forest with over-mature trees, but primarily with Quercus ilex/Quercus suber.

Description:

Body length 11 - 15 mm; abdomen predominantly black with narrow yellow transverse bands; front bands on tergits 2 - 4 slightly separated in the middle; thorax black with yellow markings, thorax laterally (pleura) with 5 yellow, distinct spots; scutellum black with yellow posterior margin; mesonotum and scutellum with short, flat lying hairs; front tibiae largely yellow; front tarsi black (1st to 3rd tarsomere) with yellow tip (4th and 5th tarsomere); arista bald.
Female: frons with medium black line reaching the anterior ocellus.

Biology:

Spilomyia saltuum flies from June to September (October).
The species is largely arboreal (living on trees). Early in the morning the imagines descend to feed on flowers and drink at the margins of sunlit forest streams. Spilomyia saltuum visits the flowers of umbellifers, Eryngium, Scabiosa and Solidago.
The immature stages (egg, larva, pupa) of the species are unknown.
The saprophagous larvae of the genus Spilomyia inhabit damp, rotten timber in hollow trees and the decaying heartwood of deciduous trees.

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. Jeroen van Steenis: The West-Palaearctic species of Spilomyia MEIGEN (Diptera, Syrphidae), Mitteilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft 73, 143 - 168, 2000.