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A Golden Honeysuckle Sawfly Abia
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,378 Major grins
("Golden" is my term, no an official name).
I was photographing bees and bee-flies on the flowering currant bush in our garden when this colourful character landed on a sunlit leaf. It was there for less than half a minute but I got four images, of which three are useable.
I thought it was one of the hoverflies with clubbed antennae. However, examination of the images shows two pairs of wings. It is a wasp, a thick wasted one aka sawfly. There are two very similar species, which I cannot separate. (One website says how to do it but does not give relevant details).
The species are Abia aenea and Abia lonicerae. I think this individual is a female. The larvae of both feed on Honeysuckle (Lonicera).
I have never knowingly seen a wasp of this genus before. We grow several Honeysuckle vines in our garden so we may meet again. I shall also look out for the larvae.
EM-1, Kiron 105mm, f16, twin flash, hand-held.
Images cropped by ca 50%. The third was not sharp but was the only head-on view so I have tweaked it as much as I dare.
Harold
I was photographing bees and bee-flies on the flowering currant bush in our garden when this colourful character landed on a sunlit leaf. It was there for less than half a minute but I got four images, of which three are useable.
I thought it was one of the hoverflies with clubbed antennae. However, examination of the images shows two pairs of wings. It is a wasp, a thick wasted one aka sawfly. There are two very similar species, which I cannot separate. (One website says how to do it but does not give relevant details).
The species are Abia aenea and Abia lonicerae. I think this individual is a female. The larvae of both feed on Honeysuckle (Lonicera).
I have never knowingly seen a wasp of this genus before. We grow several Honeysuckle vines in our garden so we may meet again. I shall also look out for the larvae.
EM-1, Kiron 105mm, f16, twin flash, hand-held.
Images cropped by ca 50%. The third was not sharp but was the only head-on view so I have tweaked it as much as I dare.
Harold
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Comments
Brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thanks, Brian.
Fortunately, all camera and lens settings were OK in advance.
Harold