Solomon's Seal sawfly
| Solomon's Seal sawfly | ||||||||||||
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Solomon's Seal sawfly |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Phymatocera aterrima | ||||||||||||
| ( Klug , 1816) |
The Salomon seal sawfly ( Phymatocera aterrima ) or Lily of the sawfly is a plant wasp that at nolinoideae TYPES from the family of asparagus plants (Asparagaceae), especially in the many-flowered's seal ( Polygonatum multiflorum ) eats.
features
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The body of the animal and all appendages are uniformly colored somewhat glossy black. The wings are tinted dark, smoke gray.
The larva is light gray-greenish, sometimes almost white, the body surface appears dull due to a powdery wax coating, sometimes even a little bluish. The entire trunk has black, bump-like tubercles in four longitudinal rows. The round head capsule and thoracic legs are also black. All abdominal segments with the exception of the first are short, gray-colored pseudopods . When fully grown, the larvae are about 15 mm long.
When threatened by predators, the larva defends itself with reflex bleeding . The body surface tears open at the endangered area and releases a yellowish drop of the poisonous hemolymph . Reflex bleeding is not a simple injury reaction, but a specialized defense strategy for which the cuticle is specially remodeled.
Way of life
The adults fly slowly around their host plants in spring ; they are relatively bad, slow fliers and loyal to their location. They fly from about mid-April to mid-May, a little later in higher mountain ranges. The females lay eggs with their saw-like ovipositor in the stalk of the host species, usually near the ground, cutting through the cuticle and pushing the eggs into the resulting pocket below. The pale green eggs lie in a row, usually about ten pieces. The storage points can be recognized by a one to two centimeter long reddish discoloration of the stem.
The larvae hatch in the second half of May and crawl to the leaf blade to eat . Here they eat slot-shaped holes in the blade from the underside. If the infestation is severe, the plant is often completely skeletonized and only the stems and some leaf veins are left. The flowers and fruit systems are also eaten. The young larvae only eat at night or in the twilight and hide during the day, the older larvae also eat during the day, usually sitting in large clusters on the underside of the leaf.
The growth takes place very quickly, usually the feeding period lasts little more than 14 days to three weeks. The larvae then seek the ground, where they pupate in a tightly woven cocoon in a small cavity. The pupae remain in the ground until the new adults hatch in the coming spring.
distribution
The species is distributed in the Palearctic and occurs in Europe and Northern Asia. In North America it is being replaced by other species of the genus. The most common host plant is the multi-flowered white root ( Polygonatum multiflorum ). However, observations have been made on a large number of other Nolinoideae species, including the real Solomon's seal ( Polygonatum odoratum ), whorl-leaved white root ( Polygonatum verticillatum ) and lily of the valley ( Convallaria majalis ). Polygonatum cyrtonema is eaten in East Asia . The species occurs almost everywhere where its food plants occur, it is widespread in Europe to the north of Scotland and also occurs regularly in gardens.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean-Luc Boevé, Véronique Ducarme, Tanguy Mertens, Philippe Bouillard, Sergio Angeli (2004): Surface structure, model and mechanism of an insect integument adapted to be easily damaged. Journal of Nanobiotechnology 2:10 doi : 10.1186 / 1477-3155-2-10
- ↑ Christopher Brickell, Brian Mathew (1999): Plate 358. Polygonatum cyrtonema. Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 16: 20-23, doi : 10.1111 / 1467-8748.00191
literature
- Ewald Altenhofer, Hubert Pschorn-Walcher: Biological notes on the sawfly genera Metallus FORBES, Monostegia A. COSTA and Phymatocera DAHLBOM (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae). In: Linz biological contributions. 35th year, issue 1, Linz 2003, pp. 405-417 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
- Klaus Hellrigl: Surveys and studies on plant wasps (Hymenoptera: Symphyta) in South Tyrol-Trentino. In: Forest Observer. 2/3, 2006, pp. 205-250 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
