A garden surprise

I visited the Stefen Hill Pocket Park earlier today but, apart from photographing Gooden's Nomad Bee, Nomada goodeniana, (easily mistaken for a wasp) there wasn't much doing. So far I have recorded three nomad bees from the park but this is the commonest species.

Gooden's Nomad Bee. Stefen Hill Pocket Park.

26 April, 2019

The more interesting find came when I arrived home. A striking sawfly was investigating a Pyracantha bush. Now I don't really do sawflies. They form a huge, complicated group of insects and there is no comprehensive key to the adults available.

However, this was a rather large specimen with striking black and gold bands across the abdomen. My initial thought was...Abia sericea. I posted a picture on Facebook and I was advised that it could be a member of the very similar genus Zaraea.

A Honeysuckle Sawfly on pyracantha. Our garden, Stefen Hill, Daventry.

26 April, 2019

With this clue I delved further into the matter and concluded that it was Zaraea lonicerae, the Honeysuckle Sawfly. Certainly there is honeysuckle in our garden.

Another view of the same insect.

This seems to be a relatively scarce sawfly with, for example, only one record for Leicestershire, so I'll forward the information to iSpot.