Taxonomy
Sphaerophoria fatarum
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Open ground; ericaceous heath, moor and blanket bog; oligotrophic Molinia grassland; unimproved, montane and alpine grassland, plus open areas in western taiga. In Ireland, S. fatarum is a species of unimproved, oligotrophic grassland, limestone pavement grassland, moor and blanket bog. It is an open country species, not found in fen, deciduous woodland or conifer plantations, unless significant areas of wet, heathy grassland are present. Neither does it occur in the standard farm landscape of green fields and hedges, or in parks or gardens. It is thus pronouncedly anthropophobic. It frequently occurs in the company of S. philantha here, with which it shares many habitats. However, on the continent, S. fatarum occurs in calcareous, unimproved, montane/alpine grassland from which S. philantha is entirely absent. This disparity hints at the existence of some difference between Irish and continental S. fatarum populations, which could be due to this taxon being polyphyletic in Ireland. However, no consistent differences can be found to separate any element of the Irish material from the rest, though Goeldlin (1989) does allude to discrepancies between the appearance of the terminalia of some Irish specimens and the appearance of the terminalia of the type specimen of this species.
Adult habitat & habits
Flies low over ground vegetation and among taller grasses.
Flight period
May/June and August/September. Larva: not described.
Flowers visited
Euphorbia hibernica, Potentilla erecta, Ranunculus, male flowers of Salix, Sorbus aucuparia, Taraxacum.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
This species appears under the name S. abbreviata (Zett.) in much recent literature. Goeldlin (1989) has shown that S. abbreviata is confined to Lapland and that a closely related group of three additional species have been confused with S. abbreviata. The most comprehensive keys to Sphaerophoria species in which S. fatarum is included are those of Haarto and Kerppola (2007a) and Bartsch et al (2009a). S. fatarum can only with confidence be separated from related species by examination of male terminalia. Figures of the male terminalia are provided by Goeldlin (1989), Haarto and Kerppola (2007a) and Bartsch et al (2009a). The species is illustrated in colour by Torp (1994), Haarto and Kerppola (2007a) and Bartsch et al (2009a). The latter authors also provide a coloured illustration of the abdomen of the female.
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Not yet established, but known from Iceland, Scandinavia and the Faroes (Jensen, 2001) south to Belgium and France (Alps); from Ireland eastwards through central Europe to Switzerland and northern Italy. Goeldlin (1989) notes that, in the Alps, the closely related species S. bankowskae (Goeldlin) and S. laurae (Goeldlin) occur at lower and higher altitudes, respectively, than S. fatarum. The occurrence of S. bankowskae in Great Britain has since been confirmed by Plant (1990) and its presence in Ireland would seem quite possible, so extreme care is needed in determination of Irish specimens of this species group. S. fatarum is frequent in the west of Ireland and the Wicklow mountains, but apparently absent from most other parts of the island. Although there are scattered records from northern Norway southwards, this species seems only to be frequent in mountainous parts of the Atlantic zone and in the Alps. It is not, as yet, known from the Pyrenees, or into south-east Europe beyond Romania.
Irish distribution
Added to the Irish list by Speight (1973), as S. abbreviata (Zetterstedt). It was pointed out by Speight (1989) that all Irish records of S. abbreviata then known refer to S. fatarum, and that S. abbreviata should be removed from the Irish list. S. fatarum is primarily montane in Ireland, occurring particularly in moorland areas.
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.