''Melangyna arctica'' is a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

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

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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 5·75-7·5 mm. Tergites 3 and 4 with white to yellow marks. Wing membrane entirely covered in microtrichia. Scutellar hairs no longer than the scutellum. The male terminalia are figured by Hippa (1968). The larva is figured in colour by Rotheray (1994). See references for determination'

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 ...

Fennoscandia, Britain and Ireland, Schwarzwald (Germany), the Czech Republic, France (Pyrenees and Alps), Switzerland, Liechtenstein. North and Central Siberia to Kamchatka.

Nearctic The Nearctic realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting the Earth's land surface. The Nearctic realm covers most of North America, including Greenland, Central Florida, and the highlands of Mexico. The parts of North America t ...

Alaska and Canada, Rocky mountains to as far as Colorado.

Biology

Habitat: ''Abies'', ''Picea'', ''Pinus'' forest and deciduous woodland (''Alnus'', ''Betula'' ''Salix''). Arboreal, but descends to visit flowers of ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', ''Galium'', ''Ilex'', ''Prunus spinosa'', ''Ranunculus'', ''Salix'', ''Stellaria'', ''Taraxacum''. 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 April to June ( later at higher altitudes). The larva is associated with aphid-infested trees.

References

Diptera of Europe Syrphinae Syrphini Insects described in 1838 {{Syrphidae-stub