SIZE, SHAPE, COMPETITION, AND COMMUNITY STRUCTURE IN HOVERFLIES (DIPTERA, SYRPHIDAE)

From analysing population fluctuations, there was little evidence of competitive interactions, except between species with predatory larvae. Even among these, highly specialized and moderately specialized predators do not appear to compete with one another; generalized species do appear to compete with one another, but not with other predators. Morphological features of the species played no detectable role in influencing population densities. Data suggest that hoverfly species respond largely independently to fluctuations in essential resources. For the urban habitat studied (a Leicester garden), at least, the idea of "community' appears to be at best notional. -from Authors