Melangyna umbellatarum is a Holarctic species of hoverfly.Fauna Europaea.
Description External images For terms, see: Morphology of Diptera.
Wing length: . This species closely resembles Melangyna ericarum, but the thorax has pale hairs on the disc (many black hairs in M. ericarum). The jowls have only pale hairs below the eyes, whereas M. ericarum has some black hairs. Tergite 2 has moderately large, yellow side-spots which extend close to or over the side-margins of the tergite (they are widely set back from it in M. ericarum). The legs have distinct clear orange markings (obscure in M. ericarum), and the four anterior femora have few or none of the posterior black bristles present in M. ericarum.Coe, R.L. (1953). "Diptera: Syrphidae". Handbks. ident. Br. insects 10(1): 1-98. R. ent. Soc. London. For full characters and references, see Bartsch et al.Bartsch, H., Binkiewicz, E., Rådén, A. & Nasibov, E. 2009 Nationalnyckeln till Sveriges flora och flora. Tvåvingar: Blomflugor: Syrphinae. Diptera:Syrphidae: Syrphinae. ArtDatabanken, SLU, Uppsala. 406 pp. and Bei-Bienko, G.Y. & Steyskal, G.C.Bei-Bienko, G.Y. & Steyskal, G.C. (1988) Keys to the Insects of the European Part of the USSR, Volume V: Diptera and Siphonaptera, Part I. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi. .Speight, M.C.D. (1988). "Syrphidae known from temperate Western Europe: potential additions to the fauna of Great Britain and Ireland and a provisional species list for N. France". Dipterists Digest 1: 2-35. The male terminalia are figured by Hippa.Hippa, H. (1968b). "A generic revision of the genus Syrphus and allied genera (Diptera: Syrphidae) in the Palearctic region, with descriptions of the male genitalia". Acta Ent. Fenn 25: 1-94.
Distribution Palearctic: Fennoscandia south to Iberia, Ireland east through North Europe, Central Europe and South Europe then east into European Russia and Siberia to Kamchatka. Nearctic: Alaska to Arizona (records may be referable to M. fisherii (Walton). Fauna EuropaeaPeck, L.V. (1988). "Syrphidae". In: Soos, A. & Papp, L. (eds.). Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera 8: 11-230. Akad. Kiado, Budapest.
Biology Habitat: streams with Salix, Salix carr, beside streams and rivers fringed by Salix. Flowers visited include white umbellifers, Foeniculum, Euphorbia, Filipendula ulmaria, Sorbus.de Buck, N. (1990). "Bloembezoek en bestuivingsecologie van Zweefvliegen (Diptera, Syrphidae) in het bijzonder voor België". Doc. Trav. IRSNB, no. 60, pp. 1-167. The flight period is May to September.Larvae predate aphids.
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