White Sawfly Larva ID

[xSarahx]

Found this guy walking up a tree trunk, but i don't know what sort of tree it was.

There is a pic on this site that looks similar, but i don't think butternut wooly worms are native to the uk, but i could be wrong....
http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/image/67533914

[JRsbugs]

The host plant can be useful as many sawflies are plant specific.

It might be the Alder Sawfly which I found after a little searching.

BTW, a butternut is a sort of squash or pumpkin so I imagine the one you saw fed on the leaves of those.

Janet

[poschiavanus]

Alder Sawfly Eriocampa ovata, should have a large black (dark) area between the eyes on top of the head (see Lorenz and Kraus, p. 109), but otherwise this looks pretty similar. Also perhaps should have more wax on it: the larvae sheds the wax and turns pale green in the last instar before pupation.

Incidentally two separate pictures on the internet labelled Eriocampa ovata appear to be identical:

Eriocampa ovata - www.galerie-insecte.org
A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington & Wirral • View topic - Alder Sawfly - Eriocampa ovata

My impression is that the larvae in this picture are not on an Alder leaf (or at least not Alnus glutinosa, just possibly Italian Alder Alnus cordata). So treat these with caution.

Posch.

PS. Can you please load photos directly to the WAB Gallery not link to ImageShack (a moderator will remove these links eventually).

[JRsbugs]

Lol, so who has nicked the larva pic off who!

[poschiavanus]

Intriguing isn't it: a bit of detective work required. I'm going to have to revise my Alder leaves (again).

[xSarahx]

Thanks for everyone's help! I think i will go for Alder Sawfly - Eriocampa ovata, as it seems to look the most like mine, despite not knowing what the tree was it was on!

Thanks again