Tenthredo mesomela (Tenthredo mesomela)

Sawfly Tenthredo mesomela One of the reasons sawflies are sadly under researched is that many of them are very tricky to identify so, perhaps understandably, some etymologists tend to avoid them.

Or so I'm told.

This is a case in point.

I spent several months convinced this was a sawfly from the genus Rhogogaster, without being able to ID the specific species and a couple of people agreed with me.

I'm glad to have finally arrived at the correct ID.

For a close up look and species information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RHbvSy848Y Geotagged,Spring,Tenthredo mesomela,United Kingdom

Appearance

''Tenthredo mesomela'' can reach a length of about 10–15 millimetres. These sawflies have a yellow to apple green body with black head, thorax and upperside of the abdomen, while pronotum and scutellum are yellow. They are distinguished from the very similar species of the genus ''Rhogogaster'' by the position of the eyes and by their black pterostigma.

The adults can be encountered from May through July feeding on small insects and on nectar and pollen of flowers. The larvae feed at night on leaves of buttercup and ''Persicaria'' species.

Saawfly - Tenthredo mesomela Zoete Waters, June 2014. Belgium,Geotagged,Spring,Tenthredo mesomela

Distribution

This species can be found in meadows, roadsides and forest edges in most of Europe.

References:

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Taxonomy
Kingdom	Animalia
Division	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Tenthredinidae
Genus	Tenthredo
Species	T. mesomela

Photographed in
Belgium
United Kingdom