RBGS FaunaBottlebrush Sawfly (Pterygophorus cinctus) Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
The Pterygophorus cinctus belong to a group of insects commonly known as Sawflies, are in the suborder Symphyta, based on reproductive and other characteristics.
Like all Sawflies, they do not possess the distinctive thin waist of other hymenopterans, nor do they possess a sting. The common name Sawfly comes from the female’s saw-like egg-laying tube, which she uses to make a slit in a plant leaf or stem, into which she lays her eggs.
Most Sawfly larvae feed mainly on native trees and shrubs, such as eucalypts, paperbarks and bottlebrushes (although there are a small number of species are parasitic).
Pterygophorus cinctus (whose common name is Bottlebrush Sawfly), feed on Bottlebrush (Callistemon), although pictured here and possibly just resting from the rain, the Pterygophorus cinctus is resting on the Leptospermum rotundifolium (in the family Myrtaceae), and known as Lavender Queen (a round-leaved tea tree).
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Suborder: Symphyta
- Superfamily: Tenthredinoidea
- Family: Pergidae
- Subfamily: Pteryophorinae
- Genus: Pterygophorus
- Species: Pterygophorus cinctus
Footnote & References
- Many thanks to Dane Jensen for ID, member of Australian Polistinae and other Hymenoptera, Australian Polistinae and other Hymenoptera, Facebook group, https://www.facebook.com/groups/188453645581988/
- The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/
- Pterygophorus cinctus Klug, 1814, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/a5638d38-cad3-4aba-893a-2223fa2c74e5
- Sawflies, Australian Museum, https://australian.museum/learn/animals/insects/sawflies/
RBGS FaunaBottlebrush Sawfly (Pterygophorus cinctus) Grey-headed Flying Fox (Pteropus poliocephalus)
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