WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Common an widespread throughout the UK especially in the South. Habitat includes: gardens, parks, allotments, cemeteries, hedgerows, woodland, scrub etc. Flight period: March to June. Length: Adult = 10mm. Female cuts open a fresh shoot of the host plant (usually roses) slicing along it with its saw like mouth part she then lays eggs into the cut. which then hatch and eat the leaves of the host starting with the fresh shoots. Other names include: Dark-shouldered Rose Fuse-horn. 2 forms in Britain: var. pagana (has the head, thorax and legs entirely black), var. stephensii (yellow labrum, middle and hind coxae, femora and tibiae).