Taxonomy

Arctophila superbiens

Distribution

Species Biology

Preferred environment

Wetland/forest; near springs, wet flushes and streams, usually in poorly-drained deciduous (Alnus/Salix/Quercus or Salix/Betula) or coniferous (Picea) woodland, e.g. Alnus/Salix woods along streams, but can be found by wet flushes and along streams in subalpine grassland. The more or less open country records are from poorly-drained oligotrophic pasture invaded by Salix scrub. A.superbiens is not an insect of bogs, or even transition mires. Neither does it occur in association with conifer plantations, and it does not occur in the standard farmed landscape of green fields and hedges, or in suburban gardens or parks.

Adult habitat & habits

Flies at all heights between tree canopy and ground level; settles on the foliage of trees and bushes, often at some metres from the ground; visits low-growing flowers beside woodland paths and alongside streams etc., but rarely in open ground; shows some preference for pink flowers.

Flight period

End July/October with peak in August; essentially a late summer/autumn insect. Larva: undescribed, but almost certainly aquatic/subaquatic among organic debris in semi-liquid mud close to streams and springs. Stubbs and Falk (1983) report that "A female was seen ovipositing in deep, water-filled hoof prints along a shaded muddy path by a stream".

Flowers visited

White umbellifers; yellow composites; Centaurea, Cirsium vulgare, Mentha aquatica, Ranunculus,Rubus, Scabiosa, Succisa pratensis, Sonchus.

Irish reference specimens

In the collections of NMI and UM

Determination

van der Goot (1981). See Key provided in StN Keys volume. In Scandinavia, the British Isles and France to as far south as the Massif Centrale, this species resembles Bombus pascuorum (Scop.) and this form of the adult insect is figured in colour in Bartsch et al (2009b), Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1984, 1994) and van der Goot (1986). In the Pyrenees and Alps occurs a form in which the hair covering of the head, thorax and abdomen is bright ginger, more closely resembling some varieties of Bombus muscorum (L.).

Distribution

World distribution(GBIF)

Scandinavia south to the Pyrenees; Ireland east through central and southern Europe (northern Italy) into European parts of Russia; south of northern France largely confined to mountain ranges. A rapid decline of this species has been noted since 1950 in Belgium (Verlinden and Decleer, 1987) and Denmark (Torp, 1984).

Irish distribution

Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953), under the name A.fulva. Most Irish records of A.superbiens are from western or northern parts of the island. But this is not a predominantly northern European insect - it reaches only halfway up the length of Norway (Nielsen, 1999), and occurs in both the Alps and the Pyrenees. It is, however, a characteristically Atlantic zone species and becomes very localised in central Europe. It is also endemic to Europe. It is not threatened in Ireland, but because it is susceptible to general land surface drainage and coniferisation of woodland it can only decrease in frequency if current trends in intensification of land use continue.

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.

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