[6][7][8][9] British Isles, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Iran, Russia, China, Transcaucasia.

The males are more colourful and have broad curved patterned wings with markings of various colors.

Sometimes wings show an iridescent blue-black band starting from the front edge, but they may also be or completely dark.

[10] Adults are visible from April to September feeding on pollen of many flowering plants, especially on umbellifers Apiaceae and Asteraceae.

Like most tachinid flies, the female lays her eggs on other insects, the larvae then develop inside the living host, devouring it and eventually killing it (case of endoparasitism).