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Tag Archives: British sawflies

Zorro comes to Wales

21 Thursday Oct 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Aproceros leucopoda, British sawflies, Elm zigzag sawfly, sawfly feeding marks on elm leaves, sawfly on Wych elm

‘Yes it’s definitely Zorro’, confirmed Andy, a county sawfly recorder, when he took a look at these photos on Twitter on Tuesday. Andy was not, of course, referring to the legendary fictional character of book, television series and movie, but to the creature that created, in the leaves of Wych elm, these characteristic feeding marks that resemble the trademark ‘Z’ signature the big screen version of Zorro left at the scene of his adventures.

211021 elm zigzag sawfly (1)

Zorro, in this case, is the Elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) and my photos are the first records for this species in Wales. The find is a double-edged sword (see what I did there?), as this sawfly is considered an invasive species, though I am assured by those who have been following its spread in England that the damage it does is not as considerable as first feared. I hope to spot the larvae that do this damage sometime next year.

211021 elm zigzag sawfly (2)
211021 elm zigzag sawfly (3)
211021 elm zigzag sawfly (4)

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Bizarre larvae

18 Saturday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

British sawflies, holes in Alder leaves, Platycampus luridiventris, sawfly larvae, sawfly larvae on Alder

I don’t know about you but when I see a leaf with holes in it, I feel a compulsion to turn over that leaf to try to determine what caused those holes. And that’s how I discovered today’s rather bizarre-looking creature.

210918 Sawfly Platycampus luridiventris (2)

And once I realised that the holes it made were smaller than many of the other holes in the surrounding leaves, I looked for other leaves with similar sized holes. And so I found several more.

210918 Sawfly Platycampus luridiventris (1)

And then I looked at other Alder trees in the same park, and I found even more.

210918 Sawfly Platycampus luridiventris (3)

It took a bit of googling when I got home but I eventually found a name for my mystery creatures, and that identification has now been confirmed by a national expert. These are the larvae of a sawfly called Platycampus luridiventris, a rather non-descript fly when you consider the larva it develops from. You can see that adult fly and read the scientific information about this species on The Sawflies (Symphyta) of Britain and Ireland website.

210918 Sawfly Platycampus luridiventris (4)

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Leafmines: Profenusa pygmaea

30 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

British leaf mines, British sawflies, leaf mines on Oak, leafminers, Oak leafmines, Profenusa pygmaea, sawfly leafmines

Believe it or not, #LeafmineMonday is a thing on Twitter, and last Monday I read with interest this tweet, with photos, posted by Rob Edmunds (@leafminerman, one of the people behind the excellent British Leafmines website):

a sawfly mine which is fairly easy to find, made by Profenusa pygmaea. Look for brown blotches on Oak leaves but with a wriggling start as shown in the photo … Initial mines are whitish but then fade to brown.

210830 profenusa pygmaea leafmine (1)

Profenusa pygmaea is a species of sawfly – you can read more about it and see photos of the adult on the Sawflies of Britain and Ireland website. As I’m often to be found checking out Oak leaves and there were no records for this particular sawfly in my local area, of course I had to go looking, and I’ve now found these leafmines in two separate locations. I’m guessing it’s yet another under-recorded species so if you spot it in your area, do please record it.

210830 profenusa pygmaea leafmine (2)
210830 profenusa pygmaea leafmine (3)

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222/365 Black and gold

10 Saturday Aug 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Abia sericea, black and gold sawfly, British insects, British sawflies, Sawfly

This stunning creature might look like a bee but it’s actually a sawfly, a harmless creature that does not sting and is so-named because the female’s genitalia are capable of ‘sawing’, in vegetation, a hole in which she then lays her eggs.

190810 sawfly (1)

This particular sawfly may be Abia sericea, a sawfly whose larvae feed on scabious plants, particularly Devil’s-bit scabious, which is very abundant where I spotted this glistening creature.

190810 sawfly (2)
190810 sawfly (3)

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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