Chrysotoxum cautum

Common Wespenschwebfliege ( Chrysotoxum cautum )

The common Wespenschwebfliege ( Chrysotoxum cautum ) is a fly from the family of hoverflies (Syrphidae ).

Features

The flies to a length 10 to 15 mm. They are relatively large and have a strong resemblance to a wasp. The black antennae are stretched forward, the first two terms are approximately the same length as the third. The abdomen is hairy and shows four yellow, bow -shaped spot pairs that are separated in the middle black. Belly side, the segments bear two to four more oblique, yellow spot pairs at the front edge of each segment. The mesonotum is black and shows both sides of the middle of each a bright longitudinal line, which is more or less clearly developed almost to the scutellum ( scutellum ). This shimmering brownish center and is also hairy brown. The legs are yellow, the femora of the first two pairs of legs are red and dark at the base. The males possess at the end of the abdomen relatively large educated genital organs, ranging ventral side up to the anterior margin of the fourth segment.

Way of life

The animals fly in Europe from May to August and frequently visit flowers of geraniums and Giersch. The larvae live in the soil and zoophag feed on living roots on leaf or scale insects. The species is most commonly found in the hill country.

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.