Taxonomy
Melanogaster hirtella
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Wetland, fen, marsh, poorly-drained pasture and a wide range of waterside situations, such as along woodland streams or field drains, beside lakes, ponds and rivers, up to the altitude of Picea forest. M. hirtella occurs in a wide range of fen/wet grassland situations in Ireland, though drainage and surface-water eutrophication are now probably responsible for a diminution in its frequency. It is found where there are streamlets or flushes, pools or ponds, its larvae living in water-edge mud or fen peat. In bog this species is replaced by M. aerosa. Its close similarity to both that species and others necessitates careful checking of the identity of putative specimens of M. hirtella collected in Ireland.
Adult habitat & habits
Usually in the vicinity of standing or running water, flying among field-layer vegetation and settling on leaves or flowers
Flight period
End April/July and on into August at higher altitudes. Larva: described and figured by Hartley (1961); aquatic, associated with various aquatic plants, including Glyceria and Typha, whose aerenchyma is tapped by the larvae to provide their air supply; the larvae are to be found among plant roots, usually at the edge of running water, in the angle where the bank begins to rise away from the water level.
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Caltha, Euphorbia, Iris pseudacorus, Menyanthes, Mimulus guttatus, Potentilla erecta, Pyrus communis Ranunculus, Sorbus aucuparia, Taraxacum, Viburnum opulus.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
Speight (1980), van der Goot (1981). The male terminalia are figured in Speight (1980), Torp (1984) and Maibach et al (1994a). The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Bartsch et al (2009b), Stubbs and Falk (1983) and Torp (1994).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
Denmark south to the Pyrenees and Portugal; Ireland eastwards to the Alps (Switzerland, Liechtenstein). This is very much an "Atlantic" species, very widespread and abundant along the western seaboard of the continent from Denmark to Brittany, but otherwise rather localised and increasingly scarce as one progresses into central and southern Europe. Its "headquarters" are essentially the Atlantic seaboard of Europe from northern Germany south to Brittany, plus the offshore islands of Britain and Ireland. Unlike many wetland syrphids, this is not a species which is abundant in lowland wetlands of Scandinavia. In fact, it is not known there further north than Denmark.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). Until recently, M. hirtella has been very frequent and widely-distributed in Ireland. It is still generally distributed here, but intensification of use of farmland, involving drainage of wet grassland, leads to disappearance of this insect, except where there are canalised streams which may continue to provide larval microhabitat. Nonetheless, M. hirtella is probably as frequent in Ireland is it is anywhere else in its range.
Temporal change
Records submitted to Data Centre in 2024
The following map is interactive. If you would prefer to view it full screen then click here.
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.