Taxonomy
Neoascia meticulosa
Distribution
Species Biology
Preferred environment
Wetland; fen, plus pond and stream margins in the open, with sedge or tall herb communities. There is no noticeable difference between the ecology of this species in Ireland and elsewhere. It is absent from both bogs on the one hand and the vicinity of eutrophicated streams and pools on the other, occurring primarily in association with streamlets and pools in fen and marsh.
Adult habitat & habits
Flies low through tall fen vegetation e.g. Cyperaceae, and is more easily detected by sweeping than by direct observation.
Flight period
End April/June. In some years, there is an apparent partial second generation in July/August. Larva: larvae and puparia described and figured by Hartley (1961) and Maibach and Goeldlin (1993); aquatic; may be found beneath the outer leaves of rotting Typha stems, below the water surface.
Flowers visited
White umbellifers; Anemone nemorosa, Caltha, Cardamine, Ficaria verna, Galium, Prunus avium, Ranunculus, Salix, Sorbus aucuparia, Taraxacum.
Irish reference specimens
In the collections of NMI and UM
Determination
van der Goot (1981) and Barkemeyer & Claussen (1986), who figure the male terminalia. The species is illustrated in colour by Bartsch et al (2009b), Haarto & Kerppola (2007) and Torp (1994).
Distribution
World distribution(GBIF)
From Fennoscandia south to northern Spain, the Alps and the former Yugoslavia; from Ireland eastwards through northern and central Europe into European parts of Russia; the Caucasus; through Siberia to as far as Cis-Baikal. Recorded as occurring in Ireland in Coe (1953). It is frequent in Atlantic parts of Europe, but less so in central Europe and remains unrecorded in the Mediterranean zone.
Irish distribution
Irish records of this species are well scattered round the island, but with a concentration in the midlands. N. meticulosa is not a threatened species in Ireland, but neither is it very frequent here.
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.