''Eupeodes corollae'' is a very common European species of

hoverfly Hoverflies, also called flower flies or syrphids, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while the l ...

. Adults are in body length. Males and females have different marking on the

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the gut, belly, tummy, midriff, tucky, or stomach) is the front part of the torso between the thorax (chest) and pelvis in humans and in other vertebrates. The area occupied by the abdomen is called the abdominal ...

; males have square commas on

tergite A ''tergum'' (Latin for "the back"; : ''terga'', associated adjective tergal) is the Anatomical terms of location#Dorsal and ventral, dorsal ('upper') portion of an arthropod segment other than the head. The Anatomical terms of location#Anterior ...

s 3 and 4, whereas females have narrow commas.

Larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

e feed on

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects in the Taxonomic rank, family Aphididae. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white Eriosomatinae, woolly ...

s. This species has been used experimentally in glasshouses as a method of aphid control, and to control

scale insect Scale insects are small insects of the Order (biology), order Hemiptera, suborder Sternorrhyncha. Of dramatically variable appearance and extreme sexual dimorphism, they comprise the infraorder Coccomorpha which is considered a more convenient g ...

s and aphids in fruit plantations. They were found to be partial to the fruit, eating more fruit than aphids. ''E. corollae'' is found across Europe, North Africa and Asia. Adults are often migratory.

Technical description

External images
For terms see

Morphology of Diptera Dipteran morphology differs in some significant ways from the broader insect morphology, morphology of insects. The Diptera is a very large and diverse Order (biology), order of mostly small to medium-sized insects. They have prominent compound ey ...

Wing length 5-8·25 mm. Male abdomen with pre-genital segment very large and conspicuous. Genitalia large. Yellow spots reach the side margin of tergites 3 and 4.Scutellum mainly yellow-haired. Female frons with white dust spots and junction between black ground colour and yellow spots straight.

Distribution

The species is distributed in Afghanistan, Africa (as a whole), Bhutan, China, Japan, Pakistan, Europe (as a whole) and India. In India, the species is primarily distributed in the northern and north-eastern part of the country, comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Meghalaya, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha, and WestBengal.

Palaearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

Range: from Fennoscandia South to Iberia, to the Mediterranean basin. Coastal States of Africa down to South Africa. Ireland East into European Russia, Russian Far East, Siberia, to the Pacific coast and Japan. China, Formosa. The male genitalia and the larva are figured described by Dusek & Laska (1961).

Biology

Habitat: grassland, dune systems, dry river beds, garrigue, most sorts of farmland (including arable crops), suburban gardens, orchards, alpine grassland in the Alps. Hedgerows, grassy clearings in woodland, crops, gardens, tracksides, and road verges. Flowers visited include umbellifers, ''Achillea millefolium'', ''Campanula rapunculoides'', ''Chrysanthemum'', ''Cirsium'', ''Eschscholzia californica'', ''Galeopsis'', ''Hypericum'', ''Leontodon'', ''Origanum vulgare'', ''Potentilla erecta'', ''Ranunculus'', ''Rubus fruticosus'', ''Salix'', ''Senecio'', ''Tripleurospermum inodoratum'', ''Tussilago''. The flight period is May to September (all the year in southern Europe). Information on the biology of ''Eupeodes corollae'' is provided by Marcos-Garcia (1981) and Barkemeyer (1994).Barkemeyer, W. (1994) Untersuchung zum Vorkommen der Schwebfliegen in Niedersachsen und Bremen (Diptera: Syrphidae). ''Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege in Niedersachsen'', 31: 1-514.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1758301 Syrphini Diptera of Africa Diptera of Asia Diptera of Europe Insects described in 1794 Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius