12 Wednesday Apr 2023
Meet Nematus lucidus, a sawfly that can be recognised both by the reddish-brown markings on its mostly black body and the torpedo shape of its abdomen.
Nematus lucidus can be seen around Blackthorn and Hawthorn, as those are the plants its larvae feed on, and the adults can be seen any time from April to June. It’s thought to be common though there aren’t a lot of records in the national databases, probably because it’s under-recorded.
21 Thursday Jul 2022
Posted in insects
Tags
British sawflies, Sawfly, Tenthredo arcuata/brevicornis/notha/schaefferi agg., Tenthredo sawflies
Have you ever wondered why the abbreviation ‘agg.’ is used after the scientific names of some flora and fauna? Well, this particular sawfly is a prime example.
‘Agg.’ is short for aggregate and is used where there exists a group of species that are so closely related and difficult to distinguish from each other, that for practical biodiversity recording purposes they are considered one species. As the Nature Spot website explains
The four species within the Tenthredo arcuata complex are problematic to distinguish and the species boundaries are unclear. The complex within Britain and Ireland consists of the species T. arcuata, brevicornis, notha and schaefferi. Unless specimens have been microscopically examined by someone with suitable expertise, we have decided that they should be recorded as part of this aggregate.
So, the scientific name used for this rather cute little sawfly is quite a mouthful: Tenthredo arcuata/brevicornis/notha/schaefferi agg.
12 Tuesday Jul 2022
Tags
British sawflies, Caliroa annulipes, larva eating Oak leaves, Oak slug sawfly, sawfly larva on Oak
Another day, another sawfly larva. This one looks more like a weird slug than a caterpillar, which presumably explains its common name of Oak slug sawfly (Caliroa annulipes). I found it fascinating to look at the veins of the Oak leaf that this larva was uncovering as it ate the tissue.
09 Saturday Jul 2022
Tags
British sawflies, larvae eating Birch leaves, Nematus septentrionalis, sawfly larvae, sawfly larvae on Birch
When I spotted these mini-beasties, they were doing a very good job of munching their way through about half the tasty young leaves of a Birch sapling. I knew they were sawfly larvae – that bottom-in-the-air pose is very characteristic of sawfly larvae – and, naturally enough, I assumed they were the Birch sawfly (Cimbex femoratus), but a quick image google showed I was wrong. It took a while to track them down but it seems these are the larvae of Nematus septentrionalis (formerly Craesus septentrionalis).
I was rather concerned for the health of the Birch as it is one of a relatively new plantation at the local country park but, when I revisited the site just a few days later, all but a couple of the larvae had disappeared. I don’t think they would have grown to pupation stage that quickly, so I assume a local bird or two had enjoyed them.
09 Thursday Jun 2022
Tags
Blennocampa phyllocolpa, British galls, British sawflies, galls caused by sawflies, galls on roses, insects on roses, leaf-rolling sawfly larvae, rolling leaves on roses, Rose galls
I was alerted to the possibility of finding these galls by a post I saw on Twitter – social media certainly is good for spreading the word about what to look for when and where.
These galls, these downward rollings of the leaf edges on rose species, are due to the larvae of the sawfly Blennocampa phyllocolpa. Presumably, they cause the leaves to roll in order to create shelters for themselves, as the leaves seem otherwise unharmed, though, when I carefully unrolled perhaps 10 leaves, I only found a larva in one of them. The adult sawfly is a tiny black creature, photos of which you can see on The Sawflies (Symphata) of Britain and Ireland website. If you have roses in your garden, you may already be aware of this sawfly’s activities on your plants.
21 Thursday Oct 2021
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.
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.
18 Saturday Sep 2021
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.
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.
And then I looked at other Alder trees in the same park, and I found even more.
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.
30 Monday Aug 2021
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.
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.
10 Saturday Aug 2019
Posted in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature
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.
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.
earthstar 
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