A bit different from my usual blogs but thought some might find this interesting. I noticed my rose bush in spring was covered in Sawflies and now I know why. They were laying their eggs in the stems of the plant. The eggs hatched about a month ago and continue to hatch in various stages. The first hatchlings are now doing a great Job at killing my Rose off but I'm allowing them to do so, as I do believe that Rose is a pretty resilient plant and if I trim off the bad branches, I'm sure it will recover well. The Sawfly Larvae are growing, but look how they stick their bums in the air...I wondered what the reason for this was for this, but given that they inevitably have to share leaves with their siblings, it makes sense for their survival to give each-other a fair chance, so lifting their bum in the air allows more caterpillar's per leaf. Space is important right? Safety in numbers and all that. There may be a more scientific reason, but that's the conclusion I came to.
Dying Rose