Pamphilius inanitus - Belted Rose Spinner

Records are widespread in southern Britain north to Yorkshire and south Cumbria, although with few Welsh records to date. There is also a single old record from Scotland (Musgrove, 2022).

Female: Head marked with dark yellow, black and ivory areas. The thorax is black but with tegulae and pronotal corners marked with yellow. Abdomen black with tergites 2 to 5 and apically orange-brown. The stigma of the forewing is bicolorous.

Male: Head black with yellow genae and temples. The underside of the thorax and abdomen is largely yellow. The abdomen is black with a varying amount of yellowish-brown at least on tergites 4 and 5 and the lateral faces of the following tergites. The stigma is less conspicuously bicolorous (basally brownish-yellow and apically light brown).

A single egg is laid on the underside of a rose leaflet. Pamphilius inanitus larvae feeds inside a leaf roll made by adding in other leaflets to form a cigar-like roll.

Jump to other Pamphiliidae

Size: 7 - 11mm

GB IUCN Status: Near Threatened
GB Rarity Status: Nationally Scarce

Distribution: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland

Flight period: May to June

Plant associations: Rosa spp. (thin-leaved roses are preferred) including Rosa majalis (Cinnamon Rose), Rosa spinosissima (Burnet Rose).

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, 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. 2022. A review of the status of sawflies of Great Britain - Phase 1: families other than Tenthredinidae. Natural England, unpublished

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