Acantholyda hieroglyphica - Banded Pine Spinner, Hieroglyph

Acantholyda hieroglyphica is one of three species in this genus in Britain. The species was added to the British checklist in 2024 by Andrew Green after discovery in Bedfordshire.

The female is described as follows. The head is black with obvious punctures and yellow anterior marks. The mouthparts and antennae are yellow. The pronotum, mesonotum and mesopleura are black and punctured with shining interspaces. The tegulae, mesoscutellum, and sometimes the metascutellum, are yellow. The abdomen is black at the base and apex but is otherwise yellow to varying degrees. The wings and venation are a deep yellow becoming smoky and rugose towards the apex. There is a black mark at the base of the stigma which is itself bicolorous being black basally and yellow apically. The femora are black, and the tibiae and tarsi are yellow.

Males are similar but with black on the antennal scape (Viitasaari, 2002).

In the field, the species can be identified as an Acantholyda species by the claws having a small tooth distant from the apical tooth and the presence of a spur near the mid-point the fore tibia. Hieroglyphica is the only Acantholyda species in Britain with the abdomen banded with yellow. An up-to-date key to all the known Western Palaearctic species of Acantholyda is given in Liston & Noblecourt (2024).

Larvae feed on pine saplings in web tunnels adorned with frass. The largest Bedfordshire final instar larva was measured at 24 mm. long. The head is orange-brown with more intensely coloured mottling in the upper half and duller brown on the clypeus. The body is yellow-brown. There are darker brown dorsal and lateral lines. A detailed description of A. hieroglyphica larvae is given in Viitasaari (2002).

Acantholyda hieroglyphica appears to feed primarily on Scots Pine but has been recorded on Pinus pinea L. in Spain and Poland (Toimil, F.J. & Acosta, R., 1993), Pinus pinaster Aiton in Portugal and widely on Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon.  Adult females seek out young pines of approximately 2-5 years old. Ova are deposited singly into the underside of needles on the growth points and the larvae construct a web tunnel on the shoot stem from within which it feeds. The larva adorns the web with its frass and bites through needles near their base within the tunnel and draws the needle into the tunnel for feeding.

The species is associated with open sandy sites (Viitasaari, 2002) and the larvae burrow into the sandy substrate to overwinter. The species is univoltine across its range.

Jump to other Pamphiliidae

Size: 11 - 15mm

GB IUCN Status: Not assessed
GB Rarity Status: Not assessed

Distribution: England

Flight period: May to July

Plant associations: Pine saplings (Pinus spp) especially Pinus sylvestris (Scots Pine).

The National Biodiversity Network records are shown on the map below. (See terms and conditions)

References:

Benson, R.B., 1952. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects. Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Vol 6, Section 2(a-c), Royal Entomological Society, London

Charles, P.J. & Chevin, H., 1977: Notes sur le genre Acantholyda (Hyménoptères, Symphytes, Pamphiliidae), et plus particulièrement sur Acantholyda hieroglyphica (Christ). - Revue forestière française, Nancy 29(1): 22-26

Ferenc, L., Stefan, M., Arben, M. and Hyssen, S., 2014. Handbook of the major forest pests in Southeast Europe. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Pristina

Kenis, M. and Kloosterman, K., 1999. European parasitoids of the pine false webworm (Acantholyda erythrocephala (L.)) and their potential for biological control in North America. Proceedings: integrated management and dynamics of forest defoliating insects: Victoria, British Columbia, August, pp.15-19.

Liston, A. and Noblecourt, T., 2024. A new species of Acantholyda (Hymenoptera: Pamphiliidae) from Lebanon, associated with Cedrus libani (Pinaceae). Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae, 64(1): 113-120.

Liston A, Knight G, Sheppard D, Broad G, Livermore L (2014) Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Sawflies, ‘Symphyta’. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e1168. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1168

Toimil, F.J. and Acosta, R., 1993. Aportaciones al co-nocimiento de la biología de Acantholyda hieroglyphica Christ.(Hym. Pamphilidae), defoliador de repoblaciones de Pinus pinea L., en la provincia de Huelva. Bol. San. Veg. Plagas, 19(1): 43-48.

Viitasaari, M. ed., 2002. Sawflies (Hymenoptera, Symphyta), I: a review of the suborder, the Western Palaearctic taxa of Xyeloidea and Pamphilioidea (Vol. 1). Tremex Press.