PROC. ENTOMOL. SOC. WASH. 89(1), 1987, pp. 147-156 SAWFLIES (HYMENOPTERA: SYMPHYTA) IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS IN THE WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA David R. Smith and Edward M. Barrows (DRS) Systematic Entomology Laboratory, BBII, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, c/o National Museum of Natural History NHB 168, Wash-ington, D.C. 20560; (EMB) Department of Biology, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. 20057. Abstract. — Malaise traps were used to determine the species, abundances, and seasonal occurrences of adult sawflies in the Washington, D.C, metropolitan area. The traps, placed in two urban environments for six years and three more natural habitats for two years from March to November, obtained 948 sawflies representing 117 species. Peaks in num-bers of species and specimens were in May. The more abundant species were Acordulecera pellucida (Konow), Schizocerella pilicornis (Holmgren), AUantus nigritibialis (Rohwer), and Ametastegia pallipes (Spinola). Known hosts for all captured species include repre-sentatives of 53 plant genera, with Rosaceae being the most utilized plant family in urban environments. Notes on selected species are given. Urban environments are becoming more common and are of increasing biological in-terest (Frankie and Koehler, 1983), but no quantitative study has yet been done on the urban sawfly fauna. As larvae, all sawfly species are plant feeders, and many are, or have the potential of becoming, important plant pests in urban environments. There are about 1100 species in North America (Smith, 1979). The purpose of this study is to determine what sawfly species are present in urban environments, their abundances, seasonal occurrences, and host-plant utili-zations. The urban environment in our study consisted of relatively well manicured and ornamentally landscaped yards and semi-natural areas within a metropolitan region. Materials and Methods Five sites were studied in the Washing-ton, D.C, metropolitan area, two urban en-vironments for six years and three more natural environments for two years. The natural environments were less disturbed, non-landscaped areas. The urban environ-ments were at residences in Glen Echo, Montgomery Co., Maryland (yard-garden trap), and near Annandale, Fairfax Co., Vir-ginia (yard trap). The natural environments were woodland (wooded-stream-habitat trap), woods edge (ecotone trap), and field (field trap), at the David W. Taylor Naval Ship Research Center (TNSRC) in Mont-gomery Co., Maryland, 5 km NNW of Glen Echo. These sites are described in more de-tail by Barrows (1986). Because only three specimens were collected in the field trap, they are combined with the ecotone trap in Table 1. Bioequip® (Santa Monica, Calif) Mal-aise traps were used at the Glen Echo and TNSRC sites. They are 2 m tall, pyramidal, with four 0.8 m-rectangular openings. In Fairfax Co., a Townes-style Malaise trap was used. It is rectangular with a 1.8 m-opening on each side and a killing jar at one
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