Greater horntail wasp (4 Viewers)

[willowa]

I thought you might like to see this Greater horntail wasp. It crash-landed in my lavenda last summer. I have only seen one on the internet and it was dead.

 

[harry eales]

I thought you might like to see this Greater horntail wasp. It crash-landed in my lavenda last summer. I have only seen one on the internet and it was dead.

Nice picture Willowa,

Sorry to have to point this out, but it isn't a Wasp but a Sawfly. It is not an uncommon species in Pine forests throughout Britain, but like all insects it does have a fairly limited flight period.

They are perfectly harmless and can be handled with impunity, not every insect with black and yellow banding stings.

I see several dozen of these sawflies each year, but then I do a lot of recording work in the extensive Pine forests in Northumberland and Durham.

Harry

 

[willowa]

I did not know what it was so e-mailed it to an insect expert from an insect ID website. Dr Ian Oldham From Cardiff. The insect was about two inches long. He said it was a harmless woodwasp (Greater horntail wasp) Urocerus gigas(Linnaeus 1755). Even the experts can get thing wrong.

 

[SleepyLizard]

I did not know what it was so e-mailed it to an insect expert from an insect ID website. Dr Ian Oldham From Cardiff. The insect was about two inches long. He said it was a harmless woodwasp (Greater horntail wasp) Urocerus gigas(Linnaeus 1755). Even the experts can get thing wrong.

Hi,

I don't think he got it wrong. The one in your photo certainly looks like Urocerus gigas (Greater Horntail wasp). I'm not sure what Harry meant but perhaps he was simply highlighting that despite it's common name, it is in fact a sawfly. Sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants all being in the order Hymenoptera.Sawflies don't have the narrow waist that you see on wasps.

Nice catch in any case!

Here's another couple of images:

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/P8/P8063.HTM

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/HYMEN7.GIF

 

[harry eales]

I did not know what it was so e-mailed it to an insect expert from an insect ID website. Dr Ian Oldham From Cardiff. The insect was about two inches long. He said it was a harmless woodwasp (Greater horntail wasp) Urocerus gigas(Linnaeus 1755). Even the experts can get thing wrong.

Hello Willowa,
No offence was meant to anyone in my earlier 'post' I was merely pointing out the error of it not being a wasp. Your 'expert' was correct in his naming of the insect, except for the 'Wasp' part.

I can understand a novice making an error and perhaps calling a day flying moth a butterfly, but it does 'grate' when an 'expert' calls a Sawfly a Wasp.

Agreed, the sawflies are part of the order Hymenoptera, as are the wasps, bees and ants, but I do find it difficult to understand why a sawfly should be called a wasp even when referring to the species in it's common English name.

U.gigas, has been known as a sawfly for more than a couple of centuries
yet people still insist on calling it a wasp. It's about time the common Emnglish Name was altered, permanently. An innaccurate name doesn't do anything, but cause confusion.

Harry

 

[willowa]

Hi Harry,
No offence was taken I simply pointed out that an expert in this field identified the insect to be a Greater horn tail wasp. I didn't know the insect was known by two different names.
Maybe Its wasp appearance has ment that the name has stuck. Or me being novice he put it in laymans trems. Or some people still call it a wasp. I agree with you that the common English name should be altered to stop any further confusion.

 

[DJRWhittle]

Excellent picture. To add to the confusion where I come from this beastie is known as the Giant Wood Wasp(that's now three different names), but it still isn't a wasp but a saw fly. The one in your picture is female and the fearsome looking sting in the tail is in fact an ovipositor which it uses to deposit it's eggs in the bark of trees. They are completely harmless. I have only ever seen one in the flesh and it was also dead having been jumped on by the person it scared the living daylights out of when it landed beside him as he was cutting the grass. Thinking he had some invader from far off lands he put it into a match box (which it filled) and notified the authorities, thereafter it landed on my desk for identification.

Hope this helps.

Derek W

 

[willowa]

If anyone would like to use this photo for ID ect feel free to do so. Or I could e-mail it to you.

Willowa

 

[willowa]

bigger image

just worked out how to make the photo bigger.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e24/elaine58l68853/wildlife1/Greaterhorntailsawfly.jpg

 

[part timer]

Hello all,
I'm just a new one, and came accross this forum when I was looking for the horntail sawfly, because one flew into my kitchen in Hartlepool, gave us all a bit of a fright, I was dead brave and let it go!
I looked in my nature book to see what it was, and found it's name but couldn't find its habitat etc. I thought it might be from outer mongolia or somewhere like that.
I wasnt that far out, seems like they live up Northumeland and Durham then eh?
Well it was nice to see it but if it comes back I will get a photo and send it in.
By the way I told the missus it said it was deadly in the book, and she thinks I'm really brave, and I've had jam on me bread for a week now.
TaTa for now.x

 

[tjsimonsen]

I can understand a novice making an error and perhaps calling a day flying moth a butterfly, but it does 'grate' when an 'expert' calls a Sawfly a Wasp.

Agreed, the sawflies are part of the order Hymenoptera, as are the wasps, bees and ants, but I do find it difficult to understand why a sawfly should be called a wasp even when referring to the species in it's common English name.
Harry

Well, that depends on how you define it. If wasp in broad sense simply equals Hymenoptera which is does for quite a few entomologists (me included) it's sensible enough. It certainly makes more sense than calling it a Sawfly since it has nothing to do with a fly (apart from being an endopterygote insect). Oh the joy of common names.

Thomas

 

[Wildmoreway]

Perhaps simply calling them Greater Horntails is the easiest answer.

 

[Espen]

i was given this by someone whowas having their hedge trimmed and the gardner swtted it thinking it was a hornet, but having seen this thread it looks very much like a greater horntail sawfly/wasp/ant thingy