Anasimyia transfuga

[stuart]

Anasimyia transfuga (Linnaeus, 1758)

Identification ease/difficulty: 4

Sources of information

• Page 192, Pl. 12, fig 12 in Stubbs & Falk (1983)
• Map here and page 17 in Ball & Morris (2000)
• Page 287, Pl. 12, fig. 10 in Stubbs & Falk (2002)

[stuart]

Species account from Provisional atlas of British hoverflies, Ball & Morris, 2000.

Anasimyia transfuga (Linnaeus, 1758) Helophilus transfuga Linnaeus in Coe (1953)

Biology: Due to the confusion with A. contractor, it is not certain to which species larval descriptions under this name in earlier literature apply. Found in wetland margins where decaying vegetation is abundant, and tall emergent vegetation such as Scirpus or Sparganium also occurs. This species will tolerate smaller and more shaded water bodies than those typically favoured by other members of the genus, occurring for example in ditches beside woodland rides

Distribution: Much the least common of the three widespread Anasimyia species, occurring most often in the southern lowlands of England north to Yorkshire and Lancashire. It is scarce in the south-west, Wales and northern Britain. It appears to be genuinely scarcer than A. contracta, from which it was separated by Stubbs (1981), and with which confusion mayhave occurred in the past