Taxonomy
Criorhina berberina
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Forest with overmature trees; most categories of both coniferous and deciduous forest. C. berberina is primarily an inhabitant of remaining areas of oak woodland in Ireland, but occurs also away from oak, in more artificial mixed woodland of conifers, sycamore and beech. C. berberina does not seem to occur in association with birch in Ireland, or with conifer plantations. But in Scotland Rotheray (1991) has found this species in association with birch and, in continental Europe, it is found in various sorts of conifer forest, for instance being frequent in humid mixed forest of beech and fir or spruce. It there occurs up to altitudes where only conifer forests are found and clearly uses overmature conifers as much as overmature deciduous trees. This species is as able to use overmature beech and sycamore as it is oak and its survival in parts of Ireland at present is probably dependent upon the remains of estate woodland containing such trees, rather than on any indigenous tree species. The fact that larvae of C. berberina occur, in particular, in association with rotting tree roots should make it possible for them to occur in stumps remaining in conifer plantations, even if the trees there are normally cut before they would develop other microhabitats suitable for C. berberina. However, the practice of chemically-treating conifer stumps, to inhibit development of the weevil Hylobius abietis, also inhibits decomposition of the stumps by other saproxylic invertebrates.
Adult habitat & habits
To a significant extent arboreal, descending to feed at flowers or oviposit; males also "patrol" stands of certain flowers (e.g. Rubus idaeus) or trees (e.g. Crataegus) in bloom, on the look-out for females; females may also be found flying in the shade, investigating the trunks and roots of old trees for possible oviposition sites; both sexes may be found "sun-bathing" in the evening, on the foliage of shrubs and bushes, in sheltered spots.
Flight period
May/July and on into August at higher altitudes. Larva: described and figured by Hartley (1961) and Rotheray (1991, 1994), from the rotten wood of a recently fallen Betula and from rotten roots of a Fagus stump. The larvae probably occur in association with rotten roots of a wide range of trees, including Abies and Picea. Rotheray (1994) mentions Betula, Fagus and Fraxinus for this species and reviews its larval biology.
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Allium ursinum, Cornus sanguinea, Crataegus, Euonymus, Filipendula, Frangula alnus, Hypericum, Lonicera xylosteum, Photinia, Ranunculus, Rhamnus catharticus, Rhododendron, Rosa, Rubus idaeus, Salix, Sorbus, Taraxacum, Viburnum opulus.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
van der Goot (1981). See Key provided in StN Keys volume. Peck (1988) consigns this species to the genus Brachymyia, which was set up during the last century for the N American species lupina Williston. In recent literature on the North American syrphid fauna, e.g. Vockeroth and Thompson (1987), Brachymyia does not appear and in Stone et al (1965) it is given as a synonym of Criorhina. The only mention of Brachymyia in European literature is a passing reference in Hippa (1978), where no European species are consigned to the genus, so the basis for Peck's (1988) action is obscure. Some recent literature still refers to a colour variety of C. berberina, C. berberina v. oxyacanthae, as a separate species. Both colour varieties of C. berberina are illustrated by Stubbs and Falk (1983). C. berberina v.oxyacanthae is also figured in colour by Bartsch et al (2009b), Kormann (1988), Schmid (1996), Torp (1984, 1994) and van der Goot (1986). C. graeca Schirmer, included by Peck (1988) as a separate species, is now recognised as a synonym of C. berberina.
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees and northen Spain; from Ireland eastwards through central Europe to European parts of Russia and Turkey; Italy; the former Yugoslavia, Roumania. This species is endemic to Europe.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). Both in Ireland and elsewhere in western Europe, C. berberina is the most frequently encountered and most widely distributed Criorhina species, except in the forests of northern Europe, where it is scarce. It occurs over most of Ireland and is not uncommon here.
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.