Platycheirus aeratus

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Platycheirus aeratus
Platycheirus aeratus male.png
Male
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Diptera
Family: Syrphidae
Genus: Platycheirus
Species:
P. aeratus
Binomial name
Platycheirus aeratus
(Coquillett, 1900)
Synonyms
  • Platycheirus occidentalis(Curran, 1927)
  • Platycheirus pauper Hull 1944) [1]
  • Platychirus angustitarsisKanervo, 1934
  • Platycheirus occidentalis Curran 1927)

Platycheirus aeratus, commonly known as Coquillett's sedgesitter, is a species of hoverfly. [2]

Contents

Description

Length
5.3–7.3 mm (0.21–0.29 in) [3]
P.aeratus leg male front and mid Platycheirus aeratus legs male front and mid.png
P.aeratus leg male front and mid
Head
The face is vertical and thinly grey pollinose, featuring a shining tubercle. The oral margin is rounded and not produced forward. [3]
Legs
The legs are mostly dark, except for the ends of the femora, the fore tibia, the bases and ends of the mid and hind tibia, as well as the fore and mid tarsomeres, which are all pale. The fore femur features a nearly basal tuft of 2-3 long, thin, wavy, closely appressed white setae, while the rest of the femur has only long, fine, wavy black pile. The fore tibia is somewhat broadened from base to end and is covered with fine wavy black pile. The first fore tarsomere is broadened slightly past the base, is parallel-sided, and is slightly narrower than the fore tibia. The remaining fore tarsomeres are unmodified. The mid tibia has dense, fine black pile on its lower front for three-quarters of its length. Additionally, the first hind tarsomere is slightly swollen. Overall, the legs are otherwise unmodified. [3]
Thorax
Sparsely grey pollinose with short yellow and wavy pile [3]
Wings
Brown-tinted and entirely microtrichose. The Halter is yellow, [3]
Abdomen
Is thin and even-sided. The tergites are entirely dark pollinose except tergites 3 and 4 have small, circular spots near the anterior margin. [3]

Distribution

The species occurs in northern Europe, from Norway into Karelian Russia and on into Asia to eastern Siberia, as well as in North America from Alaska south to California and Colorado (where it occurs at 3-4000 m elevation). [4]

Ecology

Like other species in its genus, the species can remain nearly motionless in flight. Known larvae feed on aphids. [5]

References

  1. ↑ Hull, F. M (1944). "Some new forms of Platycheirus of the family Syrphidae". Bulletin of Th Brooklyn Entomological Society. 39: 75–79.
  2. ↑ "Platycheirus aeratus Coquillett, 1900". Catalogue of Life . Species 2000: Leiden, the Netherlands. Retrieved 28 December 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Young, Andrew D.; Marshall, Stephen A.; Skevington, Jeffrey H. (17 February 2016). "Revision of Platycheirus Lepeletier and Serville (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Nearctic north of Mexico". Zootaxa. 4082 (1): 34. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4082.1.1. ISSN   1175-5334. PMID   27394216. Creative Commons by small.svg  This article incorporates textfrom this source, which is available under the CC BY 3.0 license.
  4. ↑ Speight, M.C.D (2011). Species accounts of European Syrphidae (Diptera), Glasgow2011 (PDF). Dublin: Syrph the Net publications.
  5. ↑ Láska, Pavel; Mazánek, Libor; Vitezslav, Bieik (2013). "Key to adults and larvae of the genera of European Syrphinae" (PDF). Casopis Slezskeho Zemskeho Muzea. 62: 193–206.
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