''Paragus haemorrhous'',the Black-backed Grass Skimmer is a common widespread

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 ...

found in many parts of

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 ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

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 ...

. Hoverflies can remain nearly motionless in flight. The adults are also known as flower flies for they are commonly found on flowers from which they get both energy-giving nectar and protein-rich pollen. The larvae are predators on aphids.

Description

For terminology
Speight key to genera and glossary
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external link to inaturalist images
;Size ;Head The face is yellow, moderately projecting, with a black median stripe in both sexes. The third antennal joint is sordid reddish below. The eyes are uniformly pilose." ;Thorax The scutellum entirely black. ;Abdomen Segment 1 is black and well-developed. Segment 2 is black or has a posterior margin that is red. Segments 3 through 5 are usually entirely red-orange to dark red in males. The superior lobe varies in shape and size, with an apex that is nearly truncate to strongly oblique, and with a length from one to two times that of the surstylus. ;Wings The wings are hyaline with a brownish grey stigma. ;Legs The legs are yellow and light brownish yellow. The basal half of the femora are black. The hind tibia is usually with apical half yellow-orange.
Females cannot be identified. See references for

determination Determination is a positive emotional feeling that involves persevering towards a difficult goal in spite of obstacles.Kirby, L.D., Morrow, J., & Yih, J. (2014). The challenge of challenge: Pursuing determination as an emotion. In M. M. Tugade, ...

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 __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...

south to

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

and the Mediterranean basin, Israel and Turkey, Ireland eastward through Central Europe and Southern Europe (Italy, the former Yugoslavia) into European Russia.

: from the Yukon south to Costa Rica also in parts of the Afrotropical region.

Biology

Habitat: Unimproved grassland, heathland, garrigue, dune grassland, open areas and pathsides in forest up to the ''Larix''/''Pinus uncinata'' zone, fen meadow. Flowers visited include umbellifers, ''

Calluna ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wide ...

'', ''

Jasione montana ''Jasione montana'' is a low-growing plant in the family Campanulaceae found in rocky places and upland regions of Europe and western Asia. Common names include sheep's-bit, blue bonnets, blue buttons, blue daisy and iron flower. Due to the sim ...

'', ''

Matricaria ''Matricaria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the chamomile tribe within the sunflower family. Some of the species have the common name of "mayweed," but this name also refers to plants not in this genus. Most are very common in the temp ...

'', ''

Origanum ''Origanum'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous perennials and subshrubs in the family Lamiaceae, native to Europe, North Africa, and much of temperate Asia, where they are found in open or mountainous habitats. A few species also naturalized in sc ...

'', ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

'', ''

Potentilla ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 300Guillén, A., et al. (2005)Reproductive biology of the Iberian species of ''Potentilla'' L. (Rosaceae).''Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'' 1(62) 9–21. species of annual, biennial and perenni ...

'', ''

Solidago ''Solidago'', commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 to 120''Solidago''.
F ...

'', ''

Stellaria ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively small ...

''. It flies May to September. The larva 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 on low herbaceous plants.

Molecular genetics

As "based on both morphological and molecular evidence", ''Paragus haemorrhous'' Meigen 1822, ''Paragus coadunatus'' (Rondani, 1847) and ''Paragus ascoensis'' Goeldlin de Tiefenau & Lucas, 1981 appear to be synonyms of ''

Paragus tibialis ''Paragus tibialis'', is a species of hoverfly found in many parts of Europe and North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for ...

'' (Fallén, 1817)". Rojo et al. (2006).Rojo, S., Ståhls, G., Pérez-Bañon, C. & Marcos-García, M.-Á. (2006) Testing molecular barcodes:invariant mitochondrial DNA sequences vs the larval and adult morphology of West Palaearctic ''Pandasyophthalmus'' species (Diptera: Syrphidae: Paragini). ''Eur.J.Entomol.'', 103: 443-458.

References

External links

External images
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2746286 Diptera of Europe Diptera of Africa Syrphinae Insects described in 1822 Taxa named by Johann Wilhelm Meigen Diptera of North America Hoverflies of North America