Figwort Sawfly

• The females owe the group its name to the saw-shaped ovipositor with which they cut a slit in the plant tissue to insert their eggs.
• They are the oldest group of hymenopterans: the sawflies have no wasp waist and keep the broad body of their ancestors, from before the appearance of bees, wasps and ants.
• Their larvae are told from butterfly and moth caterpillars by having more pairs of abdominal prolegs, a classic field identification trick.
• It is not a true wasp: the symphytans, or sawflies, are the oldest lineage of the Hymenoptera and have no wasp waist. The abdomen joins the thorax across its full width.
• Nor do they have a sting. What in wasps is a sting remains here a saw-shaped ovipositor, with which the female cuts into plant tissue to deposit her eggs inside. Hence the family's name.
• Its yellow and black coloration mimics wasps: it is a Batesian mimic, completely harmless.
• The larva looks like a butterfly caterpillar, but can be told apart by having more prolegs and a single ocellus on each side.
• The adult is a predator and hunts other insects on flowers, something unusual in the group, where most species keep to pollen and nectar.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Damp meadows, verges and streamsides with figworts

Sources consulted: Buglife; Benson, revisiones de Symphyta; NatureSpot

Best time: May to August, on flowering umbellifers