Greyish/Green with yellow and black Catarpillar ID ?

ivinghoe · #1 (**permalink**) 20-08-2009, 11:52 PM

I took this last weekend on chalk downland It was approx 2-3cm long and looked a little greener than appears in the photograph.
Any ID would be greatly appreciated....
Al

charlieb · #2 (**permalink**) 21-08-2009, 10:19 AM

I'm gonna be boring and say it's a sawfly - what was it eating?

ivinghoe · #3 (**permalink**) 22-08-2009, 07:03 PM

Thanks Charlie
This was seen Aston Rowant NNR
Not entirely sure what it was eating. It was on the edge of a rough footpath made up of short turf where there was a lot of overhanging faded long grass and meadow plants including birds foot trefoil, scabious marjoram etc so may have been knocked down from there. It was curled up when I noticed it and slowly unfurled and headed straight down into the turf. It was about the same length as a cabbage white caterpillar but I`d say twice as plump.
Are there any general indicators to guide what species a caterpillar is apart from locale and food plant?

charlieb · #4 (**permalink**) 22-08-2009, 08:05 PM

Sawflies are a tricky subject - there are a lot of species, and not much is known about them - there is no "guide to larva" like there is with butterflies and moths, which can usually be ID'd.

There are a few resources which list foodplants of sawflies, which can help to narrow it down, although only if you know for certain what it was eating!

It is quite distinctive so trawling through some images may eventually turn up a similar, maybe same genus, species.