Taxonomy
Eristalis interruptus
Distribution
Species Biology
Identification
Name problem here - this is Eristalis nemorum
Preferred environment
Wetland/forest; river and brook margins, marsh, fen, edges of raised bog and sunlit forest brooks. In Ireland, this species occupies the same habitats as elsewhere in Atlantic parts of Europe. E. nemorum is particularly associated with the shallow, slow-moving, oligotrophic/mesotrophic water of permanently water-filled drainage ditches and wetlands. It is also an alluvial flooplain species, occurring in temporary pools in alluvial forest caused by flooding, where there is an abundance of decaying vegetable matter. It has been reared from cow-dung in the laboratory, but it is doubtful whether it can complete development in dung away from water-logged conditions.
Adult habitat & habits
Streamsides, fen meadow and poorly-drained pasture; males circulate fast and noisily through waterside vegetation, in the vicinity of plants in flower.
Flight period
April/ September. Larva: described and figured by Hartley (1961); aquatic/subaquatic in streams and pools; also in cow faeces on water-logged ground.
Flowers visited
Yellow composites; umbellifers; Cakile, Calluna vulgaris, Caltha, Cardamine, Cirsium, Crataegus, Eupatorium, Euphorbia, Filipendula, Malus, Menyanthes, Mentha, Parnassia, Prunus, Ranunculus, Rubus fruticosus agg. Salix, Sorbus, Succisa.
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Northern Fennoscandia south to Iberia; from Ireland eastwards through central Europe into Turkey and Russia and on into Asia over most of Siberia; Italy; the former Yugoslavia; Japan; in N America from Quebec south to Colorado. Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). E. nemorum is widely distributed and common, both in Ireland and other parts of the Atlantic zone of Europe. Further south, and in central Europe, it becomes a more montane species. It has an extensive range beyond Europe, through most of the Palaearctic and in the Nearctic.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). E. nemorum is widely distributed and common.
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.