Taxonomy
Cheilosia uviformis
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Deciduous forest and woodland subject to winter flooding; occurs in both alluvial hardwood forest and lake edge swamp woodland of Alnus/Salix. There are but two sites from which C. uviformis has been recorded in Ireland, but it has been found repeatedly at one of them (Ballynafid lake, Co.Westmeath). That site is very wet Salix carr, interrupted by small glades covered in Molinia, patches of scraw and pools, along the edge of a lake. The second Irish site has similar fascies, except in that there is no scraw, the Salix woodland there edging a lake with noticeably fluctuating water level. In Britain the species is also associated with the wooded shores of lakes with noticeably fluctuating water levels. In addition, in continental Europe the species is known from alluvial hardwood forest.
Adult habitat & habits
Females spend much time sunning themselves on low-growing plants in sheltered spots; males hover up to 10 metres from the ground in small glades and along paths, in woodland, descending immediately when the sun disappears behind a cloud; males settle low down on pathside vegetation etc.; both sexes visit male flowers of Salix, but leave whenever the sun is obscured.
Flight period
May. Larva: undescribed
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Anemone nemorosa, Caltha, Crataegus, Listera ovata, Potentilla tabernaemontani, Prunus padus, Ranunculus, male Salix, Vaccinium myrtillus.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI
Determination
This species is not satisfactorily distinguished in existing keys. It is included in the keys provided by van Veen (2004), but specimens lacking scutellar marginal bristles could be misdetermined as C. laticornis, and others with a heavily-dusted face could be identified as C. rufimana. It is redescribed and its diagnostic features are detailed by Speight and Claussen (1987), who also figure features of the male terminalia. The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Bartsch et al (2009b) and Torp (1994).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees; from Ireland eastwards through central Europe to the former Yugoslavia. Although it is recorded from Britain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, it is regarded as under threat in all of these parts of Europe's Atlantic seaboard. It is not known in Atlantic parts of France. In central Europe, this insect becomes more frequent in humid forest at moderate altitude in the prealps. It is endemic to Europe, but occurs over a wide band from Denmark to Belgium through mountainous parts of central Europe to mountain ranges in the former Yugoslavia.
Irish distribution
Added to Irish list by Speight (1986b), as C. argentifrons. C. uviformis has to be regarded as threatened - and probably endangered - in Ireland and is a candidate species for inclusion on national lists of insects requiring protection.
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.