Acantholyda erythrocephala
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
Acantholyda erythrocephala is a species of sawfly in the family Pamphiliidae commonly known as the red-headed pine sawfly or the pine false webworm. Native to Europe, it has been introduced into North America where it has become invasive.
Fully-grown larvae of A. erythrocephala have yellowish heads spotted with dark brown, and greenish-grey bodies with purplish longitudinal stripes on the top and sides. The species is native to Europe and was introduced to North America in 1925, where it has become widespread in northern parts of the United States and Canada, where it is a major pest of white pine (Pinus strobus). Other trees infested include Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and red pine (Pinus resinosa).
Adults emerge in late spring, and after mating, the female lays eggs on the previous year's needles. The eggs hatch in about two weeks and the larvae move to the base of the old needles and start to feed, only moving on to new needles if they exhaust the supply of old ones. The larvae construct silken webbing inside which they live in tubes, chewing off needles and pulling them inside the tubes for consumption; the tubes soon fill... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Almaty | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pine False Webworm sighting in Almaty on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 68th most-seen of the 83 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Pine False Webworm in Almaty on a given day, against under 5% in June to March, the lowest months. Those are among Almaty's wettest months, with about 70 mm of rain a month against 20 mm in September.
Only Almaty, in our data
Almaty is the only city on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Pine False Webworm sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Pine False Webworm that you can see in Almaty (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 10%), Florentine Woolcarder Bee (about 10%) and Diplolepis mayri (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pine False Webworm is recorded against all the insects logged in Almaty (6 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
