English: This 4-5cm long larva was crawling around on the ground (see other picture) near rest area "Lucasgat" on the dutch A1 motorway in an area that has lots of oak and pine-like trees (and maybe some birch too). It rolled up when the camera came too close and clutched a little twig of the moss it was walking on. I ripped the twig out of the ground and photgraphed the head upclose from the bottom (protected side). The little leggs clutching the twig are also nicely visible. As I know nothing about these critters I looked and asked around and it seems this would be the larva of a Birch Sawfly (Cimbex femoratus).

Update: According to Doc Taxon it is a Cimbex femoratus larva. Doc Taxon states that for other species with very similar larva (Cimbex lutea and Cimbex fagi) the "warts" would be smaller and more cone-shaped as oposed to the larger and more "Zuckerhut"-shaped warts on the C. femortaus. The German word "Zuckerhut" refers to a suger cone with fairly steep sides and a clearly rounded tip used in the preparation of Feuerzangenbowle. See Wikipedia:English or German.

As a reference for this the following book is quoted: H. Lorenz & M. Kraus: Die Larvalsystematik der Blattwespen, Tenthredinoidea und Megalodontoidea. in Nr. 1 Abhandlungen zur Larvalsystematik der Insekten. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957.

Please feel free to edit this page and add more identification info or other comments!