Acantholyda erythrocephala
species of insect
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.
Description
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.
Distribution
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).
Life cycle
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 up with bits of needles, cast skins and frass. Older larvae construct their own individual tubes. By the end of June the larvae are fully developed and fall to the ground where they create earthen cells in which they spend the winter.
The public source identifies “Acantholyda erythrocephala” as species of insect. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Acantholyda, erythrocephala and species.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Acantholyda erythrocephala”, the useful work is to connect “species of insect” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q14409602. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1925.
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This entry incorporates text from “Acantholyda erythrocephala” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.