EUURA VIMINALIS GROUP

Euura viminalis - Unbisecting Purple Pea-galler

Hylotoma intercus (Linn‚ 1758)
Nematus intercus (Linn‚ 1758)
Tenthredo (Allantus) intercus Linn‚ 1758
Tenthredo (Phyllotoma) intercus Linn‚ 1758
Cynips viminalis Linn‚ 1758
Eupontania viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Nematus viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Nematus (Pontania) viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Pontania viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Pontania (Eupontania) viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Tenthredo viminalis (Linn‚ 1758)
Cynips salicis viminalis Christ, 1791
Pontania viminalis (Hartig, 1840)
Nematus saliceti Förster, 1854
Pontania saliceti (Förster, 1854)
Pontania crassipes (Thomson, 1871)
Nematus vollenhoveni Cameron, 1874
Nematus interstitialis Cameron, 1876
Nematus nigritarsis Andr, 1880
Pontania nigritarsis (Andr, 1880)
Nematus pullatus Andr, 1880
Pontania ciccum Konow, 1901
Pontania viminalis var. xanthaspis Enslin, 1915
Pontania hungarica Enslin, 1918

North to north Scotland. Over 600 records apparently pertaining to this species were found to be unverifiable. Whilst Benson (1958) noted the foodplant as Salix purpurea, and this was confirmed to be the case by Liston et al. (2017), in the meantime a guide to plant galls by Stubbs (1986) only linked the species to the wider genus as a whole. Examination of records suggests that many pertained to galls on other species of Salix, and indeed this was a sufficiently widespread problem that it was felt unsafe to accept any records of galls unless they specified a presence on Salix purpurea (Musgrove, 2024).

See Liston et al (2017) for determination of adults. The host plant is widespread. Within this group, males of Euura aquilonis, crassipes, collectanea, myrsiniticola, pedunculi, saliciscinereae, samolad, viminalis, herbaceae and arbusculae are inseparable.

Euura viminalis larvae feed on Purple Willow. The gall is in contact with the midrib, projecting only below the leaf-blade. The pea shaped gall is glabrous, often very warty and green blushed with red.

Jump to other group viminalis species

Size: Female: 2.9 - 5.4mm, male: 2.8 - 4.7mm

GB IUCN status: Least Concern
GB rarity status: None

Distribution: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland

Flight period: Bivoltine

Plant associations: Salix purpurea (Purple Willow)

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

Liston, A.D., Heibo, E., Prous, M., Vårdal, H., Nyman, T. and Vikberg, V., 2017. North European gall-inducing Euura sawflies (Hymenoptera, Tenthredinidae, Nematinae). Zootaxa, 4302(1), pp.1-115.

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

Musgrove, A.J. 2024. A review of the status of sawflies of Great Britain - Phase 3: The Tenthredinidae (subfamily Nematinae). Natural England, unpublished