I've tried to have a clue of its ID by searching through piles of sites but had to give up.
Its size is about 1cm, I found it flying a bit clumsy (maybe its a juvenile trying out its wings ?) It had a transparent-like bright green look.
I managed to carefully manoeuvre it on top of my sedum were the light conditions were a little better to photograph during that dull day.
another pic of the place on the floor where I found it
This message was edited Sep 2, 2007 6:53 AM
A sawfly of some sort,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphyta
Perhaps Rhogogaster viridis
http://www.bugsandweeds.co.uk/sawflies.html
Thank you so much!
Yes, it certainly looks like Rogogaster viridis, only that the eyes of mine look black and the pattern on its thorax and head seem undefined, but perhaps that could be if it was still a juvenile and not fully developped yet.
Found more images of it on these sites:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/98023121@N00/174802015/
http://www.livingunderworld.org/photos/data/702/41PICT6259_klein.jpg
There are more, with a side view it's dificult to see the back pattern. No pictures on this site of the others mentioned so I couldn't say if they are similar.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T136106.HTM
Viridis meaning green could be a good clue, not the best to go on though, perhaps it would be a good idea to see if you can find images of other species of the same genus.
http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P4/P44449.php
A search for just Rhogogaster brings up other green species, at the moment the unimaas site won't open for me for some reason, getting the 'gateway timed out' message.
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/image?query=Rhogogaster&invocationType=imageTab
The difficulty is that many of these photo's from R.viridis on the different sites show variation on the colour of the eyes, patterns on the head and thorax, so that is a bit confusing....
Unfortunately I don't have a pic. showing the back, only a blurry one of a more frontal view.
I think I better leave the specie open, but mark as solved for the genus.
Thanks!
Interesting insect. But this is not a juvenile - it is a full grown adult. Only full grown adults have their wings. So that doesn't explain its clumsy flying. I guess it's just a clumsy adult! LOL!!
