Platycheirus ambiguus

Platycheirus ambiguus
male
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Diptera
Family:	Syrphidae
Genus:	Platycheirus
Subgenus:	Pachysphyria
Species:	P. ambiguus
Binomial name
Platycheirus ambiguus (Fallén, 1817)
Synonyms

Platycheirus ambiguus is a small widespread species of hoverfly found across Eurasia from Ireland to Japan. A spring species found in flight in April and May ,it visits spring-flowering trees and shrubs e.g. Prunus spinosa in deciduous woodland and scrub.

The species is similar to several other small hoverflies and can be problematic to identify.

The larvae feed on aphids in various trees and shrubs.^{[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.