Myathropa florea is a very common European and North African species of hoverfly. Adults may be seen on flowers from May to September. It is of similar size as the drone fly, but living Myathropa are generally more yellow, with two light bands to the thorax, interrupted with a black central smudge. In museum specimens, any yellow colour soon fades to brown after death. Like most Eristalini, Myathropa are rather variable in size, shape and colour.
For terms see Morphology of Diptera The species has a wing length of 7–12 mm (0.3–0.5 in). Thorax dorsum with a characteristic “skull” black pattern. Abdomen black with yellow patterning. Legs pale and black. The larvae of the species were described and figured by Graham E. Rotheray in 1993. See references for determination.
Myathropa florea is found in the Palearctic from Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean basin, and from Ireland eastwards across Europe and Russia. It has been adventive on the Pacific coast of North America since 2005.
They occur in deciduous forests, fen carr, farmland with trees, parks, and gardens. They visit many different species of flowers, including umbellifers, Castanea, Convolvulus, Crataegus, Chaerophyllum, Euonymus, Filipendula, Hedera, Rhododendron, Rubus, Sambucus, Solidago, Sorbus, and Viburnum opulus. The flight period is May to October. Larvae feed on bacteria in organic waterlogged detritus, often in the shallow rot holes of tree stumps.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Myathropa florea the free encyclopedia Wikipedia which is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License). On Wikipedia a list of authors is available.
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