British Insects: the Families of Hymenoptera
| British Insects: the Families of Hymenoptera | |
Sawflies.
Adults small to medium sized; 8–10 mm long.
Head. Sub-antennal grooves absent. Antennal segments 4 (but the terminal one tiny). Antennae with a very elongated third segment.
Thorax. Pronotum deeply indented or emarginate at the back. Cenchri present. Fore-wings with the venation well developed. Hind tibiae without specialised spurs.
Abdomen. The abdomen broadly sessile at its base, without a marked constriction. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; adapted as a saw.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; phytophagous (boring in fern stems).
General comments. Known as native only from Goldstich Moss, Staffs., but occasionally found in botanical gardens such as Kew and Wisley.
Classification. Species in Britain 1; genera 1 (Blasticoma). Suborder Symphyta; Superfamily Tenthredinoidea.
To view the illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.