A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Pterygophorus cinctus
Pic #6 shows one of the instars of the bottlebrush sawfly larva between molts, holding its long tail up, threatened by my proximity. Pics 1 to 3 shows a newly molted larva with the skin hanging on to the long tail. Pics 4 & 5 are pictures of the larva after the molted skin dropped off.
Spotted on a Bottlebrush bush ( Callistemon sp)
Sawflies are neither flies nor wasps and their larvae look like caterpillars. Almost every branchlet and leaf had these larvae; the top of the bush was decimated by these sawfly larvae.
Spotted on May 6, 2013
Submitted on May 6, 2013
2 Comments
Thanks Martin. The bush was covered with these but I saw only one of these molting - exciting find !
Excellent observation Leuba.
They are quite different when newly emerged.