Pristiphora bufo (Brischke, 1883)

Pristiphora bufo - Stocky Larch Sawyer
Not placed in a group

The female is as follows. The head, including the clypeus, labrum and base of the mandibles, is predominantly pale yellowish-brown marked with dark-brown/black around the ocelli and the whole of the occiput. The antennae are darker dorsally than ventrally. The mesonotum and metanotum are mostly dark-brown/black and the pronotal corners and tegulae are yellowish-brown. On the mesopleura the mesepisterna are yellowish-brown but the mesepimera are dark. The abdomen is broadly marked with dark-brown/black on most tergites but the sternites are yellowish darkened laterally. The legs are yellowish with the hind tibia and tarsi darkened. The tarsal claws have a small subapical tooth. The fore wing veins are brown, but the base and apex of the costa are pale and with the pale extending to the base of the stigma. In lateral view the underside of the sawsheath is regularly curved to the rounded (not truncate)  apex. In dorsal view, the sawsheath broadens to the apex which is incised on either side. The lancet has few setae and the apical serrulae are flat (Prous et al, 2017).

The larvae at the fourth instar are 13-14 mm long. The head is green, tinged with orange-brown from the eyes to the temples and with a broad, longitudinal, dorsal, black line. The body is fairly uniformly green. There is a line of 4 dark green spots above each abdominal leg and a cluster of 5 dark green spots below each abdominal spiracle. Several of the annulets on the abdominal segments are beset with setae. A detailed description of P. bufo larvae is given in Vikberg (1975).

The larvae feed on European Larch (Larix decidua), Japanese Larch (Larix kaempferi), Siberian Larch (Larix sibirica), Dahurian Larch (Larix gmelinii) and American Larch (Larix laricina) (Prous et al, 2017). Ova are deposited singly into the underside of needles and the larvae feed on the fresh long needles on the growing points of the branches often moving to shorter needles on side shoots as they grow. Larvae pupate in cocoons either in the branches or in the ground for over-wintering. At high altitudes the species is univoltine but at lower altitudes it is at least bivoltine (Pschorn-Walcher et al, 1971). Pristiphora bufo does not appear to be a threat to larch production and no reports could be found of any significant outbreaks elsewhere in Europe.

Larvae are parasitised by wasps such as Mesoleius tenthredinis (Morley, 1912)

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Size: Approx. 5mm

GB IUCN Status: not assessed
GB Rarity Status: not assessed

Distribution: England

Flight period: bivoltine, April to August

Plant associations: Larix spp. (various larches)