European Red List of Hoverfies is an output of the Hoverfly Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, funded by the European Commission Service Contract ‘Status assessment of European Hoverflies (Syrphidae) – European Red List of Hoverfies (EU and pan-Europe)’. This European Red List provides the conservation status of the 892 European species of hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae), evaluated according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria.
Overall, 37.2% (314 species) of the European hoverfly species assessed in this study were considered threatened (assessed as CR, EN or VU) in Europe, with one species classified as Regionally Extinct (RE). A further 6.9% (61 species) are considered Near Threatened, and 52.7% (469 species) are assessed as Least Concern. For 5.1% (45 species), there was insufficient information available to be able to evaluate their risk of extinction, and thus they were classified as Data Deficient (DD).
The main threats to European hoverflies were found to be the impacts of intensive agriculture (including extensive livestock farming and ranching), commercial/productive forestry, residential and commercial development (tourism development and housing development), and natural system modifications (such as fires, exacerbated by climate change and the exploitation of water sources for dams or use in agriculture).
European Red List of Hoverflies provides the first comprehensive, region-wide assessment of hoverflies and identifies species threatened with extinction at the European and EU27 Member State levels so that appropriate policy measures and conservation actions can be taken to improve their status based on the best available evidence.
The European Red List of Hoverflies is available on the IUCN Red List website or you can download PDF here.
