Empria sexpunctata

I initially used Benson to key this (having got it to genus using Wright) but struggled to decide if the tarsal claws were simple or had an inner tooth. In some views of some claws I thought I could see a tooth, but I was unable to get a clear enough view to satisfy myself that what I was seeing really was a tooth, not a bit of dirt or something showing through from behind the claw. I had to therefore check both options when this is a character used in the key. There were no white flecks on abdominal tergite 1 so for couplet 4 I needed to decide if the temples were smooth and shining or dull with minute tubercles. There is a small smooth area abutting the outer corners of the ocellar triangle but the rest of the rear of the top of the head, including the area behind the compound eyes which is where I think the temples are, is relatively dull and sculptured (with small spots which I initially took to be punctures but they could be tubercles).

Couplet 6 requires me to decide if the hind ocelii further apart from each other than their distance from the hind margin of the head. These distances seem to be exactly the same to me, but given that the hind margin of the head is rounded, there is room for different interpretations. If I measure to a point close to where it starts to curve down then the distance is shorter than the distance between the ocelli, and in that case based on size it keys to what Benson calls Empria klugii. However, on my first run through of Benson, I had so much uncertainty about some of these couplets that I had not eliminated several other species in the group, so turned to Lacourt to see if any of his diagrams of the penis valves matched. The closest was Empria excisa but it wasn't a a perfect match. I wasn't sure if it was close enough, so looked to see if I could get to excisa in the key. The shape of the clypeus was wrong, so I figured it couldn't be excisa. Now the key in Lacourt does key straightforwardly lead to sexpunctata but I somehow misread something and ended up at liturata. The clypeus shape was spot-on for liturata but the penis valve was clearly wrong, so at this point I was tempted to give up or ask for help.

First I decided to give one last more careful look through Benson, and reached klugii as described above - except that the poor reproduction made it look like klugil and I couldn't find anything on the internet that was synonymous to Empria klugil. Eventually after cross-referencing all the Empria species in Benson with all the Empria in the UKSI and looking for synonyms of the ones in UKSI that weren't in Benson, I found that Empria sexpunctata was previously known as Empria klugii, and sure enough when I zoomed in on the copy of Benson I could see that it did indeed say klugii. The penis valve for Empria sexpunctata isn't shown in Lacourt which is why I couldn't find an exact match among those illustrated there, but Sawflies of Britain and Ireland website has a photo and, rather satisfyingly in the end, it matches mine. Finally I returned to Lacourt's key and realised where I'd gone wrong there, finding it does in fact run to sexpunctata there as well.

male Empria sexpunctata showing wings, hind tarsal claw, face, occipital carina, pre-occipital carina, clypeus, post-ocellar area, temples, tergites from above (3 views) and penis valve, Wendling Beck Project (Norfolk, UK), 21st May 2026