Adults are usually seen visiting flowers or basking on sunlit foliage. They are very frequent in gardens, parks and waste ground including those in urban areas, sometimes in considerable numbers

Distribution: This species migrates north from southern Europe in the spring, breeding along the way. Migrants typically arrive in Britain in late June and July when aphid numbers are building up, and larvae can reach high densities in cereal crops, resulting in vast numbers of emerging adults in late summer. In the autumn it migrates southwards again and the adults overwinter. It normally has a single generation in Britain, but some adults overwinter here and unseasonal records can occur if the weather is mild. This is one of the most abundant and widespread hoverflies, and the species for which the recording scheme has received most records, although numbers vary considerably from year to year depending on conditions for migration and on aphid numbers

Although named Marmalade Hoverfly in recent lists of hoverflies many call it the Barcode Hoverfly, as it is the only species with variable width black bars on the abdomen.