Species details

Scaeva albomaculata (Macquart, 1842)

Biology

Little known. In Greece, it visits flowers such as Broom Cytisus sp. in dry grassland. There is also an account of larval feeding on aphids in Almond orchards in Iran (Nourbakhsh et al., 2008). Larvae pupate in soil at a depth of between 3 and 5 cm. Parasitism is also recorded at levels of between 34 & 40% of larvae by Ichneumonidae and Encyrtidae.

Distribution

A Mediterranean species, one specimen of which was taken in Sussex in August 1938. A second, taken in 1949 on the Isle of Wight, has recently been discovered in a museum collection (Palmer 1996).

Status

A very scarce vagrant to the British Isles..