''Tenthredo mesomela'' is a sawfly species of the family

Tenthredinidae Tenthredinidae is the largest family of sawflies, with well over 7,500 species worldwide, divided into 430 genera. Larvae are herbivores and typically feed on the foliage of trees and shrubs, with occasional exceptions that are leaf miners, stem ...

(common sawflies), subfamily

Tenthredininae Tenthredininae are a subfamily of sawflies within the family Tenthredinidae, the largest sawfly family. It consists of about 50 genera, including the type genus ''Tenthredo''. It also includes most of the larger and more colourful members of the ...

Description

''Tenthredo mesomela'' can reach a length of about . These sawflies have a yellow to apple green body with black head, thorax and upperside of the abdomen, while pronotum and scutellum are yellow. They are distinguished from the very similar species of the genus ''

Rhogogaster ''Rhogogaster'' is a genus of sawflies in the family Tenthredinidae Tenthredinidae is the largest family of sawflies, with well over 7,500 species worldwide, divided into 430 genera. Larvae are herbivores and typically feed on the foliage of ...

'' by the position of the eyes and by their black

pterostigma The pterostigma (plural: pterostigmata) is a group of specialized cells in the outer insect wing, wings of insects, which are often thickened or coloured, and thus stand out from other cells. It is particularly noticeable in dragonfly, dragonfli ...

(''

'' species have a green stigma).Naturespot
/ref> The adults can be encountered from May through July feeding on small insects and on nectar and pollen of flowers (especially on

Apiaceae Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants ...

species). The larvae feed at night on leaves of buttercup (''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe ...

'' species) and ''

Persicaria ''Persicaria'' is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the knotweed family, Polygonaceae. Plants of the genus are known commonly as knotweeds or smartweeds.Polygonaceae The Polygonaceae are a family of flowering plants known informally as the knotweed family or smartweed—buckwheat family in the United States. The name is based on the genus ''Polygonum'', and was first used by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 ...

'').Commanster
/ref>

Distribution and habitat

This species can be found in meadows, roadsides and forest edges in most of Europe.Fauna Europaea
/ref>

References

Tenthredinidae Insects described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{sawfly-stub