Platycheirus hyperboreus

Platycheirus hyperboreus
female head by Katja Schulz
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Syrphidae
Subfamily:	Syrphinae
Tribe:	Bacchini
Genus:	Platycheirus
Subgenus:	Platycheirus
Species:	P. hyperboreus
Binomial name
Platycheirus hyperboreus (Staeger, 1845)
Synonyms [1]
Platycheirus chirosphena Hull, 1944 Platycheirus erraticus Curran, 1927 Syrphus hyperboreus Staeger, 1845

Platycheirus hyperboreus . the Pearly Sedgesitter, is a species of syrphid fly in the family Syrphidae. In North America hyperboreus is broadly distributed across Alaska, Canada, Greenland and the northern United States, ranging as far south as North Carolina in the east and Nevada. In western and northern Europe ranging from Norway, Finland, northern Russia (Kola peninsula) and on into northern Siberia. ^[2]

Description

For terminology see Speight key to genera and glossary or Glossary of morphological terminology

Platycheirus hyperboreus male above
from Andrew Young

Platycheirus hyperboreus male front leg
from Andrew Young

Length

5.3–8.7 mm (0.21–0.34 in)

Head

Face rather thickly covered with yellowish gray pollen, leaving only the tubercle and the cheeks in front more shining. Face somewhat receding in profile, the tubercle inconspicuous; cheeks convex below, Antennae brownish black. Frontal triangle pollinose, with black pile.:;Abdomen: opaque black; the first and fifth segments and the hypopygium shining green ish black; second segment with a small rounded spot on each side; third segment with a large quadrate spot in front reaching to a little beyond the middle; fourth segment similar, the spots scarcely reaching beyond the middle; fifth segment shining, wholly without yellow.

Legs

Front legs yellow, the tibiae gradually and nearly evenly dilated from the base to the tip, tarsi moderately dilated, thence gradually narrowed to the tip. The middle legs yellow with blackish femora. Hind legs black with yellow joints and tarsi.

Wings

membrane entirely trichose or with small bare area at base of cells c and bm. ^{[3] [4]}

• General Anatomy, click to enlarge
• 
  Legs
• 
  Head
• 
  Wing
• 
  Body

References

1. "Platycheirus hyperboreus Report". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
2. Speight, M.C.D (2011). Species accounts of European Syrphidae (Diptera), Glasgow2011 (PDF). Dublin: Syrph the Net publications.
3. Skevington, Jeffrey H.; Locke, Michelle M.; Young, Andrew D.; Moran, Kevin; et al. (2019). Field Guide to the Flower Flies of Northeastern North America. Princeton Field Guides. Princeton University Press. ISBN   9780691189406.
4. Young, Andrew D (2012). A revision of the Nearctic species of Platycheirus Lepeletier and Serville (Diptera: Syrphidae) (master of SCIENCE). University of Guelph. Retrieved 2012-05-09.