Taxonomy
Leucozona laternaria
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Deciduous forest/wetland; poorly drained, humid deciduous forest and along forest streams with Salix/Alnus scrub; fen carr. L. laternarius is frequently found in Ireland with L. glaucius, but occurs also in more open situations, away from woodland, though standing or running water are almost invariably close by. This is characteristically a "tall herb communities" syrphid of the edges of water bodies in Ireland and is more frequent here than in many other parts of western Europe - presumably favoured by the humid Irish climate.
Adult habitat & habits
Beside woodland streams, tracksides in fen carr and near standing water or wet flushes in forest, nearly always where the ground vegetation is dense and tall; to some extent arboreal, but descends to visit flowers; fast flying.
Flight period
End June/August, with occasional specimens in September. Larva: described and figured by Rotheray (1988a) from larvae collected on Angelica and figured in colour by Rotheray (1994).
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Cirsium arvense, Convolvulus, Filipendula ulmaria.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
van der Goot (1981).The male terminalia are figured by Hippa (1968b). The adult insect is illustrated in colour by Stubbs and Falk (1983), Torp (1994) and Bartsch et al (2009a).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
From Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees; from Ireland east through northern and central Europe into Turkey and European parts of Russia; through Siberia to the Pacific coast (Kuril Isles); Japan. It is more frequent in Atlantic parts of Europe than in central or southern Europe, and is absent from the Mediterranean zone, Portugal and Spain.
Irish distribution
Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). L. laternarius is frequent in occurrence in Ireland and known to occur over most of the island.
Temporal change
Records submitted to Data Centre in 2023
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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.