Taxonomy
Dasysyrphus venustus
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Forest; humid Fagus, acidophilous Quercus, Betula and wet woodland; alluvial hardwood forest; humid Pinus, Picea/Abies and conifer plantations. Despite current nomenclatural confusion (see below), it can be said that D. venustus is a forest species in Ireland, occurring here in both deciduous woodland and conifer plantation as it does in continental Europe.
Adult habitat & habits
Clearings, tracksides etc.; to a significant extent arboreal, but descends to visit flowers and also to sun itself in the evening.
Flight period
April/June and July at higher altitudes/more northerly latitudes. Larva: described and figured by Dusek and Laska (1962) and illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994); aphid-feeding, on trees and shrubs. The morphology of the chorion of the egg is figured by Kuznetzov (1988).
Flowers visited
White Umbelliferae; Acer platanoides, A. pseudoplatanus, Allium ursinum, Berberis, Caltha, Crataegus, Endymion, Euphorbia, Frangula alnus, Ilex, Lonicera xylosteum, Potentilla erecta, Prunus cerasus, P. spinosa, Ranunculus, Rubus idaeus, Salix, Sambucus, Sorbus aucuparia, Stellaria, Taraxacum.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
Present concepts of this species are confused and its treatment here has to be regarded as provisional in nature. It is hoped that revisionary work currently underway (Doczkal, pers.comm.) will clarify the status of this taxon and provide a more satisfactory basis for distinguishing it from related species, some of which are currently unrecognised in existing literature. The male terminalia of D. venustus (as D. arcuatus, Fallen) are figured by Hippa (1968b) and Vockeroth (1969). The adult insect is supposedly illustrated in colour by Kormann (1988), Stubbs and Falk (1983) Torp (1994) and Bartsch et al (2009a).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees and northern Spain; from Ireland eastwards through northern, central and mountainous parts of southern Europe (Italy, the former Yugoslavia) into European parts of Russia; in Siberia from the Urals to the Pacific coast (Kuril Isles); in N America from Alaska to Quebec and southwards to Oregon.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). The confusion surrounding correct identity of this species makes its status in Ireland very uncertain at present and mapping of its distribution cannot be carried out until this confusion is resolved and the identity of all available Irish material then rechecked.
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.