Kingdom Animalia Family Syrphidae Phylum Arthropoda Rank Species | Class Insecta Subgenus Pandasyophthalmus Genus Paragus Order Fly | |
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Similar Paragus, Fly, Paragus tibialis, Melanostoma mellinum, Melanostoma scalare | ||
Paragus haemorrhous, is a widespread species of hoverfly found in many parts of Europe, Africa and the Nearctic.
Contents
Description
External images For terms, see: Morphology of Diptera
The wing length is 3–4.5 millimetres (0.12–0.18 in). It has small black flies. Tergites have red markings. Eye pilosity is uniform. Scutellum is black. Females cannot be identified. The larva is illustrated in colour by Rotheray (1994).
See references for determination.
Distribution
Palearctic: Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean basin, Israel and Turkey, Ireland eastward through Central Europe and Southern Europe (Italy, the former Yugoslavia) into European Russia. Nearctic: from the Yukon south to Costa Rica also in parts of the Afrotropical region.
Biology
Habitat: Unimproved grassland, heathland, garrigue, dune grassland, open areas and pathsides in forest up to the Larix/Pinus uncinata zone, fen meadow. Flowers visited include umbellifers, Calluna, Jasione montana, Matricaria, Origanum, Polygonum, Potentilla, Solidago, Stellaria. It flies May to September. The larva feeds on aphids on low herbaceous plants.
Molecular genetics
As "based on both morphological and molecular evidence", Paragus haemorrhous Meigen 1822, Paragus coadunatus (Rondani, 1847) and Paragus ascoensis Goeldlin de Tiefenau & Lucas, 1981 appear to be synonyms of Paragus tibialis (Fallén, 1817)". Rojo et al (2006).