A Cladius on Wych elm

05 Thursday Oct 2023

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British sawflies, Cladius sawflies, Cladius ulmi, Cladius ulmi larva, sawfly larva, sawfly on Wych elm, Wych elm

There are just seven species of Cladius sawfly found in Britain, which, you might think, would make them relatively easy to identify. Sadly, this isn’t the case, especially in their larval forms, as all their caterpillars look very similar, and even the expert I consulted said he was unsure about the larval differences.

231005 Cladius ulmi (1)

However, I seem to have struck it lucky with this particular species as The Sawflies (Symphyta) of Britain and Ireland website says: ‘They can be distinguished from the other elm feeding species, Cladius rufipes, by the presence of a black spot on the front of the face which is absent in rufipes.’ As you can clearly see in the photo above, this larva has that black spot, so meet Cladius ulmi, a sawfly species that feeds on elm, in this case Wych elm (Ulmus glabra).

231005 Cladius ulmi (2)

The return of Zorro

14 Saturday May 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Aproceros leucopoda, Elm zigzag sawfly, sawfly larvae, sawfly on Wych elm, Wych elm

If you’ve been following along here for a while, you might remember last year’s ‘first for Wales’ find, the distinctive marks on leaves of Wych elm trees of the Elm zigzag sawfly (Aproceros leucopoda) (Zorro comes to Wales, October 2021). For the past couple of weeks I’ve been monitoring the trees where I first saw those marks and, yesterday, found them again, with the larvae that create them in situ, happily munching away on the elm leaves. In fact, following a good look around the area, I found larvae on six Wych elm trees (and there were other trees I couldn’t access), and then found a single larva on a Wych elm at Cosmeston, perhaps half a mile away. It will be interesting to see how quickly these creatures spread through the local landscape.

220514 elm zigzag sawfly larvae

Z is for Zorro

31 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, leaves, trees

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Elm zigzag sawfly, larvae on Wych elm, sawfly on Wych elm

And so we come to the end of my A-to-Z showcase of some of the highlights of my ‘wild life’ in 2021. There was only ever one contender for the letter Z, Zorro, my find of Elm zigzag sawfly larval feeding tracks on a Wych elm leaf, a first record for this species in Wales.

211231 elm zigzag sawfly

Thanks, everyone, for following along on my journey through the wildlife of south Wales again this year. I truly appreciate all your likes and comments that inspire me to continue seeking and learning. And I hope these posts encourage you to look more closely at and appreciate the amazing natural world around us.

I hope to continue my daily posts in 2022, though I already know there will be some changes to my personal circumstances in the coming year, which may affect my ability to post or, quite possibly, the location I post from. I’ll write more about this when things become clearer.

One immediate change takes effect today – to save money I’ve cancelled my personalised domain name. I’m assured this should automatically revert to a generic wordpress domain – fingers crossed! – but I don’t know how this will affect, amongst other things, links in prior posts. I’ll be checking.

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.