Hemichroa crocea

Hemichroa crocea
Larva feeding on alder leaf
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Suborder:	Symphyta
Superfamily:	Tenthredinoidea
Family:	Tenthredinidae
Genus:	Hemichroa
Species:	H. crocea
Binomial name
Hemichroa crocea Geoffroy in Fourcroy, 1785

Hemichroa crocea, the striped alder sawfly or banded alder sawfly, is a species of sawfly in the family Tenthredinidae. It occurs in North America and Europe. The larvae feed on the foliage of several species of alder and sometimes on birch and willow.

Description

The adult striped alder sawfly has an orange-red thorax, a black abdomen and translucent wings. The larvae resemble caterpillars, and when fully grown are about 20 mm (0.8 in) long. They have black heads and yellowish bodies with a dark brown stripe on each side of the dorsum, and two rows of dark brown markings on each side.

Distribution

The striped alder sawfly is found in Europe, southern Canada and northern United States, its range extending all the way across the continent. It is probably native to Europe and introduced into North America.

Hosts

The larvae of this sawfly feed on several species of alder, and sometimes on birch, and willow.

Life cycle

The first generation of striped alder sawflies are on the wing in late May. The eggs are laid in slits beside the midrib of leaves of the host plant. When these hatch, the caterpillars are gregarious and feed together, in time eating the whole leaf apart from the midrib and veins, and moving on to the next leaf. These larvae reach full size in July and descend to the ground where they spend the winter in a thin-walled prepupal cocoon made of sand and soil particles cemented together. A new batch of adults appears in late July and August; larvae from this second generation are present on the host plants in August and September, before they too spend the winter as a prepupa in the ground.