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Bottlebrush Sawfly larva -molting

Pterygophorus cinctus

Photo by Leuba Ridgway
Published on Project Noah
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-37.8968, 145.315

Field Notes

Description:

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.

Habitat:

Spotted on a Bottlebrush bush ( Callistemon sp)

Notes:

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.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (2)

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.

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