Taxonomy
Sphaerophoria interrupta
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Open ground/wetland; fen, humid, unimproved grassland and grassy woodland clearings; from coastal dune systems to montane Vaccinium heath and unimproved alpine grassland in central Europe. In Ireland today, this insect occurs in humid, seasonally flooded grassland, limestone pavement grassland, dune grassland (where not exposed to heavy grazing), streamside grassland in moor and blanket bog, grassy open areas in deciduous woodland and in fen. It has all but disappeared from the standard farmland landscape of green fields and hedges, except where a strip of more-or-less unimproved grassland remains as field margin, and in this mirrors its disappearance from much of western Europe. It is very much a species of humid, unimproved grassland, in central Europe rarely seen now except in montane to subalpine situations - it can be found up to nearly 2000m in the Alps. Essentially, present-day grassland management practices of fertilisation, re-seeding and periodic cultivation make S. interrupta an extremely anthropophobic syrphid, a situation probably contrasting strongly with that of 50 years ago, when it would seem likely that traditional grassland management would have ensured that S. interrupta was well-nigh ubiquitous here. But, inevitably, the available distribution data are inadequate to substantiate this perception.
Adult habitat & habits
Flies low through stands of grasses etc.
Flight period
May/September (plus April in southern Europe), with peaks in June and end July/August. Larva: not described, but illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994). The morphology of the chorion of the egg is figured by Kuznetzov (1988).
Flowers visited
Achillea millefolium, Meum, Ranunculus, Senecio jacobaea, Stellaria, Taraxacum.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
This species is usually referred to in recent literature as S. menthastri (L.). Goeldlin (1989) points out that the Linnaean type of menthastri cannot belong to the species to which that name has been applied and reinstated the name interrupta for menthastri sensu auctores nec L. , based on examination of the Fabrician type material of S. interrupta. Van der Goot (1981) and Verlinden (1991) figure the male terminalia. The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1984, 1994), van der Goot (1986) and Bartsch et al (2009a).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
From northern Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean; from Ireland eastwards through much of Europe into European parts of Russia and the Caucasus; through Siberia to Cis-Baikal. It is widely distributed in Europe, from northern Norway to the Mediterranean, and extends beyond Europe into parts of Siberia.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953), but at that time this insect was confused with various other European Sphaerophoria species. The presence of this syrphid in Ireland was confirmed by Speight et al (1975), where it appears under the name S. menthastri. S. interrupta remains frequent through most of central Ireland and cannot be regarded as under threat here. Its frequency is apparently diminishing rapidly in some parts of the Atlantic zone, but it not yet classed as threatened anywhere.
Temporal change
Records submitted to Data Centre in 2025
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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.