Taxonomy
Merodon equestris
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Deciduous forest/open ground; open areas in humid deciduous forest and at higher altitudes, up into the subalpine zone; significantly anthropophilic, occurring also in suburban gardens and on horticultural land. This species is almost entirely anthropophilic in Ireland, and still occurs most frequently within urban/suburban areas. The form of the species present in Ireland is that normally found in open areas within humid deciduous forest in the Atlantic zone of Europe. Other forms occur further south and at higher altitudes. M. equestris may now have established itself in wild plant hosts, or at least in populations of garden plants (e.g. various Allium and Narcissus species) that have established themselves away from gardens in Ireland, but the general lack of appropriate bulbiferous indigenous plants would seem to ensure that this syrphid will remain largely dependent upon gardens and horticultural establishments for its survival here.
Adult habitat & habits
Flies low, with a rapid zig-zag flight, among ground vegetation beside tracks, in clearings, over flower beds; frequently settles on bare ground.
Flight period
May/July (plus April in southern Europe and August at higher altitudes). Larva: described and figured by Hodson (1932b) and Heiss (1938) and illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994); internal feeder in tissues of bulbs of Liliaceae; regarded as a minor pest of horticulture e.g.in the culture of Narcissus. A comprehensive survey of the literature on the biology of M. equestris is provided by Barkemeyer (1994).
Flowers visited
Umbellifers; Ajuga, Aster, Cirsium, Crepis, Eschscholzia californica, Hieracium, Knautia arvensis, Meconopsis cambrica, Papaver, Ranunculus, Rubus idaeus, Senecio.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
van der Goot (1981), Bradescu (1991). The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Bartsch et al (2009b), Haarto & Kerppola (2007), Kormann (1988), Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1984, 1994) and van der Goot (1986), who all show a range of the colour varieties of this very variable bumble bee mimic.
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean, including N Africa; from Ireland eastwards through much of Europe into European parts of Russia; also in Japan; in N America from British Colombia south to California. Man's activities have resulted in introduction of this species to parts of the world outside its natural range, including New Zealand. Within Europe its range has almost certainly been expanded due to human activity - it is doubtful, for instance, that this species reached either Britain or Ireland unaided by man.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). This species has evidently reached most parts of the island now, even if remains somewhat localised. It is not a threatened insect in Ireland and is widely distributed and frequent in much of Europe, except in the north, where it reaches only the southern edge of Scandinavia. M. equestris is effectively becoming cosmopolitan, under man's influence.
Distribution frequency 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.