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Project Noah Nature School
Pterygophorus cinctus
Small sawfly larvae at about 18mm long and working in small teams to strip the fleshy parts of callistemon leaves. The second shot shows the damage they did when tiny, 10 fitting across a leaf and not able to eat the veins. Today, pics 4,5 they only fit 3 or 2 across a leaf and are turning greener. The 6th shot is of a much more developed one elsewhere on the bush.
In a local school yard.
First appearance on these plants this season. These are actually the larvae of a type of wasp. Previous to this stage they are too small to chew through the veins in a leaf and so 'skeletonize' them. http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/110...
order: HYMENOPTERA
superfamily: TENTHREDINOIDEA
family: PERGIDAE
subfamily: Pterygophorinae
Distribution http://spatial.ala.org.au/?q=lsid:%22urn...
http://australianmuseum.net.au/sawflies
http://www.ozanimals.com/Insect/Sawfly/P...
Spotted on Mar 17, 2014
Submitted on Mar 22, 2014
34 Comments (1–25)
Thanks Dan and Leanne.
Belated congrats Mark! What a great find.
Congrats Mark!
Thanks prof.
Congratulations Mark!
Nice series
Thanks Jolly.
Congratulations Mark. Beautiful series. The first picture looks more like a strange flower.
Thanks Gilma. Cute and creepy together.
Congratulations on the SOTW!! Mark Ridgway.
Great spotting, series and fantastic pictures. Those little creatures are so cute!!
Thank you everyone!
What a great spotting, Mark!
Congratulations Mark!
Congratulations Mark, well deserved I must say.
Congrats Mark!
Good work Mark. Great series of images!
Mac, sunny Tom, Leana thanks :-)
Congratulations - Well done ! they really are cute and I love the filigree on the leaf..
Added pics... check out the leaf in #2
Oh wow thanks so much for the SOTW. I was just about to add some catchup shots of these little guys. They're very amusing in their progress. Ok here they come...
Congratulations Mark!
Congrats Mark! Nice spotting.
Congrats Mark!!!
Congrats Mark! A team of sawfly larvae chomps its way through callistemon leaves in our Rangers Choice Spotting of the Week! Large groups of sawfly larvae often completely defoliate their host plants.
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Nice line up Mark
Thanks Martin and Wild Things