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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Sawflies.
Adults small to large; 7–15 mm long.
Head. Sub-antennal grooves absent. Antennal segments 18–24. The antennal flagellum simple and not serrate, the segments not produced.
Thorax. Pronotum more or less straight 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 visibly protruding, or not visibly protruding; adapted as a saw.
Larvae. Larvae with segmented legs (but no abdominal prolegs); phytophagous (on conifers and woody dicots, including Populus and Rosa).
General comments. Broad bodied insects, with large head and dorso-ventrally flattened abdomen; the second abdominal tergite divided posteriorly along the mid-line and the mouthparts not as long as the head capsule, by contrast with Megalodontidae.
British representation. Species in Britain 19; Acantholyda, Cephalacia, Neurotoma and Pamphilius.
Classification. Suborder Symphyta; Superfamily Megalodontoidea.
Illustrations. • Neurotoma saltuum (Barred Lyda: B. Ent. 381). • Neurotoma saltuum (detail: B. Ent. 381). • Neurotoma saltuum (dissections: B. Ent. 381). • Neurotoma saltuum: B. Ent. 381, legend+text. This includes the type description of the synonym, N. fasciata (Curtis). • Neurotoma saltuum: B. Ent. 381, text cont.. • Pamphilius sylvarum, P. stramineipes (Cameron II, vi). 7. P. stramineipes (f). 4. P. sylvarum (f). 4a, base of antenna; 4b, mandibles. • Pamphilius hortorum, Pamphilius pallipes (Cameron III). 1, Pamphilius hortorum (Klug.); 2, Pamphilius pallipes (Zett.). From Cameron (1890). • Pamphilius inanitus, Neurotoma saltuum (Cameron II, vi). 5. Neurotoma saltuum: a, antenna base. 6: Pamphilius inanitus (f). a, antenna base; b, leg. • Acantholyda erythrocephala (Cameron II, vi). 3, Acantholyda erythrocephala (male). 3a, base of antenna. • Acantholyda and Pamphilius (Cameron III). 6 and 7, Acantholyda posticalis Matsumara, male and female respectively. 8, Pamphilius betulae (Linn.). 9, Pamphilius vafer (Linn.)? - labelled P. depressus by Cameron. 10, Pamphilius albo-pictus (Thomas) - labelled by Cameron P. depressus var. albo-pictus. From Cameron (1890). • Larvae: Pamphilius (Cameron II, xii). 8, 8a & 10: Pamphilius (?)stramineipes. 12: Pamphilius histrio. 13: Pamphilius inanitus larva (in case).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
