sometimes, I try and illustrate the living-things I encounter to help fully observe and memorize their identifying features.
This is the latest such illustration, some galls I saw this year:
top row: ram's-horn & spangle gall wasps, on oaks
bottom row: beech gall midge, on beech; willow gall sawfly, on willow
03/09/2025 - Finally the rain stopped for the day so we headed out for an evening stroll to the bottle bank and shop. I stopped to look at the young birch trees growing by the side of the road. A very big green caterpillar caught my eye. What butterfly or moth is this going to be I thought. Turns out none as it's the larvae of a birch sawfly, Britain's largest sawfly. Nice find and a new bug for me. I like bugs.
Allotment holders probably won't agree but I think this insect is beautiful. Turnip Sawfly (Athalia rosae).
Rose sawfly larvae, (Arge pagana I think). The one furthest left looks very happy 🙂
grim
Spaceways
LionelB
llewelly
Chuckling Duck
Kimberley
Bath Nature
Rebecca Wismeg-Kammerlander
Walter S.