Platycheirus albimanus

Platycheirus albimanus
male
female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Syrphidae
Genus:	Platycheirus
Subgenus:	Platycheirus
Species:	P. albimanus
Binomial name
Platycheirus albimanus (Fabricius, 1781)
Synonyms
Platycheirus cyaneus (Walker, 1851) Syrphus albimanus Fabricius 1781) Syrphus cyaneus Walker, 1851

female in flight

Platycheirus albimanus on Tanacetum vulgare (video, 1m 40s)

Platycheirus albimanus is a common widespread species of hoverfly. A holarctic species its range includes Greenland, Iceland, Britain, mainland Europe, Russia, across Siberia to the pacific coast, the Philippines, Alaska, western Canada and United States.

The larvae feed on aphids on a wide range of plants, shrubs and trees.

Adults can be found in flight generally between April and October on the edges of woodland or scrub, heath or along hedgerows where they visit a wide range of flowers.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

References

1. Ball, Stuart; Morris, Roger (2013). Britain's Hoverflies: An Introduction to the Hoverflies of Britain. Woodstock, Oxfordshire: Princeton University Press. pp. 296pp. ISBN 978-0-691-15659-0.
2. Ball, S.G.; Morris, R.K.A. (2000). Provisional atlas of British hoverflies (Diptera, Syrphidae). Monks Wood, UK: Biological Record Centre. pp. 167 pages. ISBN 1-870393-54-6.
3. Speight, M.C.D. (2011). "Species accounts of European Syrphidae (Diptera)" (PDF). Syrph the Net, the database of European Syrphidae. 65: 285pp.
4. Stubbs, Alan E.; Falk, Steven J (1983). British Hoverflies: An Illustrated Identification Guide (2nd ed.). London: British Entomological and Natural History Society. pp. 253, xvpp. ISBN 1-899935-03-7.
5. Van Veen, M.P. (2004). Hoverflies of Northwest Europe, Identification Keys to the Syrphidae (Hardback). Utrecht: KNNV Publishing. p. 254. ISBN 90-5011-199-8.