''Didea alneti'' is a Holarctic

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

hoverfly Hover flies, also called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectar and pollen, while ...

Description

For terms see

Morphology of Diptera Dipteran morphology differs in some significant ways from the broader morphology of insects. The Diptera is a very large and diverse order of mostly small to medium-sized insects. They have prominent compound eyes on a mobile head, and (at most) ...

The wing length is 9 ·75-11·5 mm. The face mostly yellow. Halteres with at least knob black or dark brown. Male vertex not long, less narrow than in ''

Didea fasciata ''Didea fasciata'' is a Holarctic species of hoverfly. DescriptionExternal imagesFor terms see Morphology of Diptera Wing length 8·25– 11 mm. Halteres with yellow knob. Face yellow, at most the tip of the central knob dark. The male g ...

''. Tergite 5 black, rarely with spots. Male tergite 4 with front edge of wedge-shaped bars clearly separated from the front margin of the tergite or just touching front of tergite on median line. The male genitalia and the larva are figured by Dusek and Laska (1967) .

Distribution

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

species with a wide distribution in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and East across Russia to the Pacific coast, Mongolia, Japan and Korea. in North America from Alaska south to Colorado.

Biology

Habitat forest; conifer forest and taiga, ''Quercus'' woodland. Arboreal, descending to visit flowers of white umbellifers, yellow composites, ''Cirsium'', ''Plantago'', ''Potentilla'', ''Rosa'', ''Rubus idaeus'', ''Salix'', ''Sambucus ebulus'', ''Valeriana officinalis'', ''Viburnum opulus''.de Buck, N. (1990) Bloembezoek en bestuivingsecologie van Zweefvliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) in het bijzonder voor België. ''Doc.Trav.'' IRSNB, no.60, 1-167. The flight period is mid May to early September. The larva is arboreal and feeds on

aphid Aphids are small sap-sucking insects and members of the superfamily Aphidoidea. Common names include greenfly and blackfly, although individuals within a species can vary widely in color. The group includes the fluffy white woolly aphids. A t ...

s associated with ''Larix'', ''Prunus'', ''Salix'' and ''Quercus''.

References

External links

External images
Diptera of Europe Syrphinae Syrphini Insects described in 1817 {{Syrphidae-stub