Pristiphora nigella - Black Spruce Sawfly
Pristiphora nigella group

Scattered records across Britain. Benson described the species as widespread in Britain, but relatively few records are available. The species has been noted occasionally in recent years however. May well be greatly overlooked as with other spruce-feeding sawflies. Enston & Williams (2023) found this to be the sixth most frequent nematine in yellow bowl traps in two Welsh spruce forests. Much more frequent than amphibola in Fennoscandia (M. Mutanen pers. comm.) (Musgrove, 2024).

This species is similar to Pristiphora amphibola but female amphibola are almost completely black and with a long sawsheath than nigella. Males can be distinguished by the penis valves.

Pristiphora nigella larvae feed on Norway spruce.

Jump to other species of Pristiphora

Size: 4.5 - 5.00mm

GB IUCN status: Least Concern
GB rarity status: Nationally Rare

Distribution: England, Scotland, Ireland

Flight period: Assumed April to May

Plant associations: Picea abies (Norway spruce)

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., 1981. Pristiphora (Lygaeophora) lanifica (Zaddach, 1882) new to Britain (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae). Entomologist's gazette.

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 Natural England, unpublished

Prous, M., Kramp, K., Vikberg, V. and Liston, A., 2017. north-Western Palaearctic species of Pristiphora (hymenoptera, tenthredinidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research, Vol. 59