Bug FAQCommon Copperback
Ferdinandea cuprea · Order: Diptera · Family: Syrphidae
The common copperback has a wing length of about 7.3 to 11.3 mm and a black thorax with grey dust and strong longitudinal black stripes. It lives on the trunks of live trees such as poplar, willow, oak and birch, especially where sap runs or in glades and clearings. Adults fly from April to September in northern Europe and visit many flowers, while larvae develop in sap, wet decaying roots or humus cavities of oak trees.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
The thorax dorsum is black with grey dust and strong longitudinal black stripes; the abdomen is greenish with dull bands and the wings have dark marks.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Wing length ranges from 7.25 mm to 11.25 mm.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
Found on trunks of standing live trees, cut ends of stacked logs, in glades, at the edge of clearings, along tracks, and near sap runs. Associated with woodlands of poplar-willow, hornbeam-oak, various oak forests, and birch forests.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
Adults visit flowers such as honeysuckle, mint, roses, blackberries and many others for nectar. Larvae are found in sap from damaged oak and ash trunks.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
Adults are on the wing from April through September in northern Europe. Larvae develop in wet, decaying oak roots, trunk humus cavities, and at sap runs, acting as saprophages or detritivores.
Source: Wikipedia
When you see it
Flight period spans April to September in northern Europe.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
Native across the Palaearctic from Fennoscandia south to Spain and the Mediterranean, extending east to Siberia and Japan.
Source: Wikipedia
More photos
Same family (Syrphidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinandea_cuprea
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-22.