Paragus albifrons
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Invertebrate > insect - true fly (Diptera) > Hoverfly |
| Red List Status: | Critically Endangered (Not Relevant) [CR(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Paragus albifrons |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | (Fallén, 1817) |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | Ball & Morris, 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Known in the UK from perhaps 20 sites in southern England with post-2000 records seemingly confined to the Thames Gateway and Pegwell Bay in Kent. Endangered in Europe (IUCN). |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Poor understanding of its specific needs or habitat preferences. The modern sites are coastal marshes and associated brownfield sites, though it is unclear whether dry or wet conditions are needed. The larvae are presumed to be aphid predators in low herbage. On the continent larvae have apparently been found on Cirsium arvense, Carduus, Onopordon, Ononis repens, Daucus and Tragopogon. |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | The species would probably benefit from sensitive management of coastal habitat mosaics that promote assorted early successional stages of both dry and damp habitats. |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Low - Relict or natural rarity |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Specific targeted surveying/monitoring in its key area to investigate its current status (to feed into a revision of the Red List) extent of populations and whether there are specific habitat needs.
Action targets: 2. Biological status assessment exists
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 20 sites
High priority sites: Thames Gateway sites e.g. Isle of Grain, Isle of Sheppey,.Swanscombe, Canvey Island, Tilsbury, Rainham Marshes; also Pegwell Bay-Sandwich Bay.
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.