en: This 4-5cm long larva was crawling around on the ground near rest area "Lucasgat" on the dutch A1 motorway in an area that has lots of oak and pine-like trees (and maybe some birch too). It rolled up when the camera came too close and clutched a little twig. I ripped the twig out of the ground and photgraphed the head upclose from the bottom (protected side) (see other picture). As I know nothing about these critters I looked and asked around and it seems this would be the larva of a Birch Sawfly (Cimbex femoratus).

Update: According to Doc Taxon it is a Cimbex femoratus larva. Doc Taxon states that for other species with very similar larva (Cimbex lutea and Cimbex fagi) the "warts" would be smaller and more cone-shaped as oposed to the larger and more "Zuckerhut"-shaped warts on the C. femortaus. The German word "Zuckerhut" refers to a suger cone with fairly steep sides and a clearly rounded tip used in the preparation of Feuerzangenbowle. See Wikipedia:English or German.

As a reference for this the following book is quoted: H. Lorenz & M. Kraus: Die Larvalsystematik der Blattwespen, Tenthredinoidea und Megalodontoidea. in Nr. 1 Abhandlungen zur Larvalsystematik der Insekten. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957.

Please feel free to edit this page and add more identification info or other comments!

BeschreibungGroene rups 4-5cm.jpg	English: Birch Sawfly Larva (Cimbex femoratus) - walking on the ground (fell from tree?). Location: Motorway rest area "Lucasgat" near Apeldoorn, Netherlands. Keywords: wildlife, nature, insect, symphyta, woods, woodland, birch, sawfly, summer, green, larvae, caterpillar, grub. Nederlands: Larve van een Berkenknotssprietbladwesp of kortweg Berkenknopwesp (Cimbex femoratus) - lopend op de grond (uit boom gevallen?). Locatie: Parkeerplaats "Lucasgat" langs A1 (NL) Trefwoorden: larve, berk, wesp, rups, groen Deutsch: Larve der Grosse Birkenknopfhornblattwespe - spaziert auf dem Bodem herum (aus Baum gefallen?).
Datum	29. Juli 2006
Quelle	Eigenes Werk
Urheber	Pudding4brains
Genehmigung (Weiternutzung dieser Datei)	Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse Ich, der Urheberrechtsinhaber dieses Werkes, veröffentliche es als gemeinfrei. Dies gilt weltweit. In manchen Staaten könnte dies rechtlich nicht möglich sein. Sofern dies der Fall ist: Ich gewähre jedem das bedingungslose Recht, dieses Werk für jedweden Zweck zu nutzen, es sei denn, Bedingungen sind gesetzlich erforderlich.