Sawflies get it on

The first Sawfly hatchling investigated the rose bush from where it had originally come from almost as soon as it had hatched. Within about 30 seconds another Rose Sawfly turned up as if by magic and made himself known.
There was no mating, our Rose Sawfly doesn't put out on a first date. She found a stem and stuck a little saw from her abdomen into the stem.


Then slowly she would contract muscles in her abdomen to make the saw go in and out. As she did this she would slowly walk down the stem, cutting a long slit in it. The cut would take 5 hours to complete and she would work into the night.

The following day she made the rather bold decision to sit on the top of the rose leaves and try and attract attention. Soon a male found her and they mated. To do this she had to de-stow her stem cutting saw. You can just glimpse it in these photos under the wing of the male.



In the meantime the other Sawfly (the one that failed to cocoon) is now nearly all the right colour and does seem nearly ready to wake up. It is smaller than the first. I think it is a male. I wonder if Sawfly males and females mature at different rates to ensure genetic diversity? i.e. to make sure that we get no interbreeding.