Genus Sphaerophoria

revised in(1)

Sphaerophoria Lepeletier & Serville 1828

14 spp. in our area(2)

5.9-10.8 mm(3)

usually associated with dry grassland, also around woodland paths or marshes(4)

Larvae feed on aphids. Adults take nectar and pollen and may be pollinators

1. Puparium. 2. Mating pair

Two main groups in the key(5): species whose lateral scutum stripe ends at the transverse suture (novaeangliae, contigua, sulphuripes, pyrrhina) and those with a faint or strong stripe extending past the suture (scripta, philanthus, brevipilosa, longipilosa, cranbrookensis, asymmetrica, weemsi, bifurcata, abbreviata). The former are usually keyable to species in both sexes (though male sulphuriphes and pyrrhina cannot be told apart); the latter are generally impossible to key from photographs with the exception of male scripta (found only in Greenland) and philanthus and female scripta, cranbrookensis, and bifurcata. In Vockeroth's key, multiple species of females in the latter group fall out together, and can only be told apart when attached in copula to a male that is then keyed from the genitalia.

Stripe ends at the transverse suture (click for an explanation on the first image):

Stripe continues past the transverse suture, either strongly (as in the first image) or more weakly (as in the second image):