Grey-spotted sedgesitter
Platycheirus albimanus
The grey-spotted sedgesitter is a small, common hoverfly. Its face looks dusted with silver, and its belly has silvery spots. It visits all sorts of flowers along hedges and woodland edges.
Lives in
Across the north of the world: Europe, Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Siberia, Alaska, Canada and the United States
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Hoverflies cannot sting or bite.
What does it eat?
The grown-ups visit many kinds of flowers. The larvae eat aphids on all sorts of plants, bushes and trees.
How fast is it?
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Grey-spotted sedgesitter about 14 km/h (8.7 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
It flies from April to October.
2
Its front legs widen suddenly near the tip, like a tiny paddle.
3
It looks almost exactly like a few other hoverflies, so experts need to look very closely.
4
Its larvae are aphid hunters, so gardeners are happy to have it.
you asked
Most asked questions about Grey-spotted sedgesitter
?Does the grey-spotted sedgesitter sting?
No. It is a hoverfly and cannot sting.
?What do its larvae eat?
They eat aphids on many plants, bushes and trees.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Platycheirus albimanus
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Syrphidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Syrphidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, North America
Where the facts come from
- Platycheirus albimanus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Sandy Rae. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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