Mountain sawfly
| Mountain sawfly | ||||||||||||
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Mountain sawfly ( Macrophya montana ), female |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Macrophya montana | ||||||||||||
| ( Scopoli , 1763) |
The mountain sawfly ( Macrophya montana ) is a plant wasp from the family of the sawfly (Tenthredinidae).
features
The species reaches a body length of 9 to 11 millimeters. The female is drawn in black and yellow. The head is black with a yellow clypeus and labrum. The first tergite on the abdomen is completely yellow, the fifth and sixth have broad yellow bands interrupted in black in the middle. On the seventh, sometimes also on the fourth, there are small yellow spots on the side. The ninth is also drawn in yellow above. In the male, the entire abdomen is usually black, sometimes with narrow pale bands on the sides of the tergites. The legs of the female are predominantly yellow with black markings, in the male the first two pairs of legs are pale yellow, the rear legs are predominantly black, but the tips of the tibia and some tarsi are white. The similar Macrophya rufipes can be distinguished by the red markings on the hind leg (femur) and the reddish wing mark (pterostigma) (in montana it is black).
In both sexes, but more so in males, the front edges of the complex eyes converge. Their margins are no further apart than the width of the clypeus.
Ecology and way of life
The larva develops on the leaves of species of the Rubus genus ( blackberries and raspberries ). Rubus caesius is often mentioned as a nutrient plant. Information about herbaceous rosaceae is also considered implausible. The adults often sit on umbellate flowers . Adults fly in summer (May to July).
The species is widespread and mostly common in southern and central Europe, it is also found in North Africa, Turkey and Iran. Finds are north to Scotland, some even to the Orkney Islands.
Web links
- Macrophya montana at Fauna Europaea
- Species portrait on naturspaziergang.de
swell
- RR Benson: Symphyta (Section b, Tenthredinidae). Handbook for the identification of British insects Vol. 6 part 2b. London 1952. published by the Royal Entomological Society London.
- Andreas Taeger, Ewald Altenhofer, Stephan M. Blank, Ewald Jansen, Manfred Kraus, Hubert Pschorn-Walcher, Carsten Ritzau (1998): Comments on the biology, distribution and endangerment of the plant wasps in Germany (Hymenoptera, Symphyta). In: Taeger, A. & Blank, SM 1998 (Ed.): Plant wasps in Germany (Hymenoptera, Symphyta). Annotated inventory. - Goecke & Evers, Keltern, 364 + 3 pp.