Adults are usually found on the edges of woodland or scrub, heath or along hedgerows where they visit a wide range of flowers.

[1][2][3][4] [5] External images For terminology see Speight key to genera and glossary or Glossary of morphological terminology For additional information, see these images.

Palearctic: Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean basin, Ireland east through Europe into Turkey and European Russia and then from the Urals to central Siberia.

Nearctic: Alaska to Ontario and south to California.

[12][13][14] [15] Habitat: grassland and fen, margins of ponds, streams, bogs and lakes, wet ditches and canals.