Baccha elongata

Common Schattenschwebfliege ( Baccha elongata )

The common Schattenschwebfliege or Bright Needle hoverfly ( Baccha elongata ) is a fly from the family of hoverflies (Syrphidae ).

Features

The flies reach a body length of 7-11 mm. Your abdomen is similar to a wasp very slim and thickened club-shaped at the end. Head and thorax shining black, the dark mesonotum has a greenish metallic sheen. The abdomen is black and carries on the third and fourth segment yellow spots. The face, on the edge of the mouth, a yellow or white in color, the forehead and the vertex wear light-colored hair. The forehead is dull gray in males, in females it is dull gray over the sensors and about matt gray with a black center stripe. The antennae are black brown, her third element is colored yellow on the bottom. The legs are brownish yellow, isolated, the rear pair of legs also be brown in color. The species can be confused with the very similar Baccha obscuripennis whose males have no light hair on his forehead.

Occurrence

The animals are found in the Holarctic and are less common than in lowland areas at higher elevations. They live mainly in shady and moist habitats, especially forests and close to waters and fly in two generations of April to October.

Way of life

The males are perennial fliers and can stay on for hours in the air, the females are flightless, however sluggish and usually stay on leaves or grasses in the undergrowth. The larvae live in the forest growing herbaceous plants zoophag of leaf and scale insects.

Swell

• Gerald Bothe: hoverflies. German youth club for nature observation, Hamburg 1996.
• Joachim & Hiroko main: flies and mosquitoes: observation of life. Nature -Verlag, Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3-89440-278-4.