Melangyna species have eye bare, with short sparse hairs, or with abundant distinct hairs; face always at least slightly broadened below, tubercle always well developed, face at most slightly prominent below, rarely entirely yellow, usually with distinct and often broad black medial vitta, sometimes darkened laterally and yellow-brown ground colour scarcely visible; scutum black, shining or sub shining, sometimes slightly or densely pollinose laterally, never yellowish laterally; scutellum dull yellow toblackish brown, but never metallic; pleura black, shining or pollinose, at most with obscure yellowish area on posterodorsal part of anepisternum; katepisternal pile patches usually broadly or moderately broadly separated, rarely narrowly joined posteriorly; metacoxa with tuft at posteroventral apical angle; terga 2 to 4 with transverse yellow maculae which are always well separated, usually sub rectangular, occasionally broadened laterally but never oblique; maculae of tergum 2 usually narrower than those of tergum 3, rarely much larger and subquadrate; very rarely maculae of tergum 2, or all pale abdominal markings, completely absent; sterna with black fasciae or entirely darkened (from Vockeroth 1969).
Synonyms:
Stenosyrphus columbiae Curran, 1925: 110.
Syrphus flavosignatus Hull, 1930: 139.
Scaeva lasiophthalma Zetterstedt, 1843: 735.
Syrphus sexquadratus Walker, 1849: 586.
Syrphus mentalis Williston, 1887: 72.
Stenosyrphus vittifacies Curran, 1923: 66.
Stenosyrphus garretti Curran, 1925: 109.
Epistrophe abruptus Curran, 1924: 80.
Stenosyrphus saghalinensis Matsumura, 1917: 15.
Mesosyrphus elongatus Matsumura, 1917: 20.
Mesosyrphus constrictus Matsumura, 1917: 19.
Stenosyrphus yezoensis Matsumura, 1918: 13.
Stenosyrphus nikkoensis Matsumura, 1918: 12.
Adapted from Vockeroth (1992).
MALE.
Head: Eye with dense moderately long hairs little shorter than those of M. coei; eye angle about 90-100°. Frons black, subshining to moderately gray pollinose. Face dark yellow, subshining, withmoderately to very broad black medial vitta; facial pile white or partly black; lower facial margin very broadly black; gena black.
Thorax: Scutal pile mostly or entirely black; pleural pile black at least above, mostly black in some specimens; notopleuron and pleura scarcely pollinose. Scutellum with posterior margin narrowly to broadly black, disc yellow; scutellar pile black. Wing entirely microtrichose or with narrow bare area along centre of cell bm. Legs mostly dark brown to black, most of pro- and mesotibiae slightly paler.
Abdomen: Terga with normal markings; yellow maculae rarely reaching lateral margins; maculae of tergum 2 in some early spring specimens tiny or absent. Sterna subshining, black with narrow to broad yellow incisures, with paired anterior yellow maculae confluent medially in some specimens.
FEMALE.
Eye with short but usually moderately abundant and distinct hairs, in some eastern specimens hairs rather sparse. Frons black with pollinose fascia at mid length small, arcuate, usually divided, gray or in some specimens obscure brown. Face strongly shining to distinctly pollinose, with medial vitta usually narrower than in male; gena usually mostly yellow. Scutal pile pale yellow or partly black; pleural pile white; notopleuron and pleura scarcely more pollinose than in male. Scutellar pile black posteriorly or mostly black. Wing as in male or, especially in eastern specimens, with cell c narrowly bare basally and with cell bm up to two-thirds bare.
Melangyna (Melangyna) lasiophthalma (Zetterstedt, 1843).
Zetterstedt, J.W. (1842- 1860) Diptera Scandinaviae ...Vol. 1, pp. iii-xvi+440 [before 1842.09.06]; vol. 2, pp. 441-894 [1843.05.02]; vol. 3, pp. 895-1012 [1844.03.20], 1013-1280 [1845.04.09]; vol. 4, pp. 1281-1738 [1845.06.11]; vol. 5, pp. 1739-2162 [1846.09.03]; vol. 6, pp. 2163-2580 [1847.06.09]; vol. 7, pp. 2581-2934 [1848.09.13]; vol. 8, pp. 2935-3366 [1849.09.12]; vol. 9, pp. 3367-3710 [1850.??.??]; vol. 10, pp. 3711-4090 [1851.??.??]; vol. 11, pp. 4091-4545 [1852.03.10]; vol. 12, pp. xx + 4547-4942 [1855.07.??]; vol. 13, pp. xvi+ 4943-6190 [1859.09.01 preface]; vol. 14, pp. iv + 6191-6609 [1860.12.12]. Officina Lundbergiana, Lundae [=Lund.]
GenBank accession number for this species are: protein-coding COI gene (EF127361) and rRNA 28S gene (EF501966).
Body length: 6.1-10.9 mm (Vockeroth 1992).
Fagisyrphus, Meligramma and Dasysyrphus have always placed close to Syrphus, sometimes as the sister groups. Meligramma was reduced to a subgenus of Melangyna by Vockeroth (1969) and World Catalogues followed him, but larval characters did not support a sister group relationship between them, a result also suggested by Mengual et al (2008). Thus, molecules and larval evidence support results of Dusek and Laska (1967) in giving Meligramma full generic status. In Mengual et al. (2008) Melangyna was resolved alone, separately from Meligramma and Fagisyrphus as using larval evidence (Rotheray and Gilbert 1989, 1999).
Flowers visited by adutls: Acer pseudoplatanus, Alnus glutinosa, Anemone nemorosa, Anthriscus, Caltha, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, Corylus avellana, Euphorbia, Ilex, Lonicera xylosteum, Narcissus, Oxalis, Prunus laurocerasus, P.spinosa, Ranunculus, Salix, Sambucus, Sorbus aucuparia, Taraxacum, Tussilago, Ulex (Speight 2010).
Larvae of M. lasiophthalma have been reported feeding on Adelges sp. (Adelgidae), Drepanosiphum platanoidis and Mindarus abietinus (Aphididae).
The flight period for European specimens is from March to June and on into July at higher altitudes/more northerly latitudes (Speight 2010).
Holarctic species with a wide distribution. In North America, from Alaska to Newfoundland, south to Oregon, Colorado, Connecticut and Maryland. In the Palaearctic, from Iceland and Fennoscandia south to the Pyrenees and mountainous parts of Spain; from Ireland eastwards through northern Europe and mountainous parts of central Europe into European parts of Russia; through much of Siberia (Speight 2010).
Adults inhabit edges of clearings, tracksides etc.; largely arboreal, females flying round tree foliage from 2 m. upwards; descends to visit flowers and frequently settles on the trunks of standing trees, in the sun; males hover over tracks, in glades etc., from 2 m. upwards (Speight 2010).
Adults' preferred environment: forest; acidiophilous Quercus forest; Fraxinus/Salix gallery woods along rivers; wet forest of Alnus/Salix; Betula/Salix forest; coniferous forest (Abies/Picea) and conifer plantations, plus Atlantic scrub, hedgerows, suburban gardens and orchards (Speight 2010).
Larva described and figured by Goeldlin (1974, in French), who found larvae on yellow gentian.
Egg (from Chandler 1968).
White or cream, colour deepening slightly on development; mean length 1043 µ (n = 51, range 970-1150 µ), mean width 387 µ; rounded at both ends; pronounced surface projections dorsally and laterally. Chorionic sculpturing: dorsally projections mushroom-shaped with neck about as long as wide; dendritic ramifications with mean number of forked branches per unit more than 8; ventrally, sculpturing of large dots and rods not aggregated into discrete groups. Ecological notes: Common spring species; eggs found from April to June; wide host acceptance range, eggs laid singly.
unless otherwise stated