NOT ALL CATERPILLARS WILL BE MOTHS OR BUTTERFLIES

    Last year I found several of these larvae on Meadow vetchling and tried several times to id it .Photos were sent to various experts without success,but it was confirmed to be a sawfly larva ,this year I decided to keep one in captivity and rear it an adult to see if it could be identified.After 4-5 days it moulted and a larva with  different pattern emerged as below                                                                                                                          I again sent of photos and John Grearson one of the uks leading sawfly experts responded with an id ,Tenthredo notha,a species that has only been photographed previously as a larva in Czechoslovakia,it apparently alters its pattern before retreating to plant root area to hibernate for the Winter.

Sawflies get their name from the saw like appendage they use to cut their way into plant tissue to lay eggs.The photo below is of a sawfly that drowned in a hoverfly pantrap,it is possibly Abia candens,the larva of which feeds on the leaves of Devils bit scabious.The "saw" can be seen at rear of abdomen.

                                                       

                                    

Larval stage Abia candens below.

This is a rose sawfly larva Arge gracilicornis.
Sawfly larva have six or more pairs of legs , more than the lepidoteran caterpillars which have only five pairs.