![]() The female searches for developing acorns in which to oviposit and when a suitable specimen is found she will insert her long rostrum into the base above the cup and repeatedly drill deep into the acorn at slightly different angles thereby fragmenting and softening the developing tissue on which the young larva will feed, she will then insert her ovipositor and lay one or two eggs, sometimes more eggs are laid but each acorn will accommodate only two larvae and any more will die off, she will then go on to find more suitable host material and it is thought that about fifty eggs in total will be laid. ![]() Adults appear in the spring, usually from late April, and are present until late in the autumn, they mate after a period of feeding on host foliage and flowers although they also occur on hawthorn blossom, but oviposition does not begin until late summer. petraea (Matt) is also commonly utilized. Here it is widespread and generally common throughout England north to the Humber though very local and scarce in the West Country and Wales, it is typically a species of deciduous and mixed woodland with plenty of host material, often on trees exposed to the sun, but may also occur on individual trees in hedgerows, parkland or gardens etc, the usual host is pedunculate oak, Quercus robur L. ![]() One of several oak-feeding members of the genus, this species is locally common throughout Europe, extending north to the UK and Denmark but absent from Fennoscandia, it also occurs in Morocco and extends through the Middle East and Asia Minor to Siberia. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |