Microdon mutabilis

Diagnosis
Subgenus: Microdon Wing length 6–9 mm. Pterostigma 2-2.5 times as long as the length of the wing margin between ends of wing veins R1 and R2+3. Scutellum red or dark red. The male genitalia are figured by Doczkal and Schmid (1999).[3] Note M. mutabilis is only reliably distinguished from M. myrmicae by features of the puparium.

Distribution
Norway, Microdon mutabilis is supposedly occurring from Fennoscandia south to Iberia and the Mediterranean; from Ireland east through most of Europe, into European parts of Russia; through Siberia to the Pacific coast. But existing range data for this taxon must now be regarded as unreliable, since they are based almost exclusively on specimens collected as adults that were determined prior to description of M. myrmicae. The only records of Microdon mutabilis sensu Schönrogge et al (2002a, b) given by those authors are from Britain and Ireland. Re-appraisal of the range of M. mutabilis is now required, based on bred material for which diagnostic puparial features can be examined. Reemer et al (2009) no longer regard M. mutabilis as present in the Netherlands (Speight 2010).

Biology
Ant host: Formica lemani, Formica fusca, Lasius niger and Myrmica ruginodis.