Chrysotoxum vernale

[stuart]

Chrysotoxum vernale Loew, 1841

Identification ease/difficulty: 4

Status

• Endangered in Falk (1991)
• Endangered in Shirt (1987)

Sources of information

• Page 131, Pl. 4, fig 8 in Stubbs & Falk (1983)
• Map here and page 48 in Ball & Morris (2000)
• Page 193, Pl. 4, fig. 8 in Stubbs & Falk (2002)

[stuart]

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

Chrysotoxum vernale Loew, 1841

Biology: The larvae remain unknown, but this genus is thought to be associated with ants. There are insufficient records to develop a clear picture of this species’ habitat requirements

Distribution: Very scarce. Records are mostly old, and come from Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall

[stuart]

Datasheet from the Insect Red Data Book, Shirt (1989).

Chrysotoxum vernale Loew, 1841 ENDANGERED

Identification: Stubbs & Falk (1983), pp. 59 and 131, pl. 4:8

Distribution: The southern coastal belt of south-west England, from south-west Hampshire to east Cornwall. For map see Entwistle & Stubbs (1983), map 12.

Habitat and ecology: Unknown. The larvae will be of the aphid-feeding type, probably subterranean.

Status: Historically seemingly very rare; only one recent record, in Dorset.

Author: A. E. Stubbs.

[stuart]

Datasheet from the Review of Scarce and Threatened Diptera, Falk (1991).

CHRYSOTOXUM VERNALE Loew ENDANGERED

DISTRIBUTION A small number of sites on the south coast of England between Hampshire and Cornwall: Penzance, Cornwall (1871); Tamerton Foliat, Devon (old); Oakers Wood (1988); Studland (1919, 1968), West Moors (1897), Parley (1942) and Wareham Heath (1917), Dorset; Lyndhurst (1869), Mudeford (1951), Hampshire and possibly some other unspecified New Forest sites.

HABITAT Heathland and possibly associated heath woodland.

ECOLOGY Larval habits unknown though possibly predators of root aphids or living in ant nests. Adults recorded from May to July and were recorded visiting the flowers of wood spurge Euphorbia amygdaloides at Oakers Wood.

STATUS Declining, with little recent information other than the two post 1960 sites from Dorset.

THREAT Clearance of heathland for arable agriculture and intensive forestry has greatly reduced the area of suitable habitat and changes in heathland management may have resulted in its decline at existing sites. Accidental fires are a constant danger.

MANAGEMENT Maintain a pattern of traditional heath management, attempting to retain a mosaic of vegetation types and prevent scrub invasion.