Taxonomy
Platycheirus fulviventris
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Wetland; marsh, fen, margins of rivers and irrigation ditches in farmland. P. fulviventris is a characteristic species of reed (Phragmites, Phalaris) beds and stands of other tall, water margin grasses (e.g. Glyceria maxima) in Ireland. It can be found in most situations where this type of vegetation occurs, but does not occur away from it. In consequence, this syrphid does not occur in farm landscapes of green fields and hedges, except where features like reed-lined drainage ditches are present. Similarly, it does not occur in conifer plantations, deciduous woodland or suburban gardens. It can reasonably be regarded as anthropophobic here and liable to diminish in frequency with drainage of wetlands.
Adult habitat & habits
Flies among fen and waterside vegetation, on the water side (rather than the bank side) of reed beds, frequent where Phragmites and Cyperaceae predominate; settles on stems of Cyperaceae, Juncaceae etc.
Flight period
May/August with occasional specimens into September, and March/October in southern Europe. Larva: described and figured by Rotheray and Dobson (1987) and illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994), aphidfeeding, on Carex, Phragmites and Typha. Dziock (2002) reported that under laboratory conditions development (from egg-laying to hatching of adult) can take as little as 7 weeks in this species.
Flowers visited
Cyperaceae; Graminae, Plantago.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
Speight and Goeldlin (1990). The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1984, 1994), van der Goot (1986), Bartsch et al (2009a).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
From southern Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean; through lowland areas of central Europe and southern Europe into Turkey and European parts of Russia and on to the Pacific coast. Widely distributed but infrequent in Ireland, P. fulviventris becomes more common in central (lowlands) and southern Europe. It reaches into northern Europe only as far as the southern edge of Scandinavia. Outside Europe, it ranges through Asiatic parts of the Palaearctic to the Pacific, but is unknown in the Nearctic.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). Widely distributed but infrequent in Ireland.
Temporal change
Records submitted to Data Centre in 2024
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References
Publications
Speight, M. C. D. (2008) Database of Irish Syrphidae
(Diptera). Irish Wildlife Manuals, No. 36. National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Dublin, Ireland.
Speight, M.C.D. (2014) Species accounts of European
Syrphidae (Diptera), 2014. Syrph the Net, the database of European Syrphidae,
vol. 78, 321 pp., Syrph the Net publications, Dublin.