Male: An orange banded abdomen with other parts black.
Female: The body is predominantly orange on top contrasting with the black head, black scutellum and black legs. The female is similar to Dolerus aericeps and Dolerus triplicatus. In madidus the legs are entirely black, whereas aericeps has red about the knees. Also, the front lobe of the mesonotum is always red in madidus but in aericeps it is often entirely black, though this is not always the case. The scutellum in madidus is black, whereas it is red in triplicatus.
Larvae feed on Juncus.
Size: 8 - 10.5mm
Status: Local and widespread
Distribution: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland
Flight period: March to June
Plant associations: Juncus sp. (rushes)
Benson, R.B., 1952. Handbooks for the Identification of British Insects. Hymenoptera, Symphyta, Vol 6, Section 2(a-c), Royal Entomological Society, London
Liston A, Knight G, Sheppard D, Broad G, Livermore L (2014) Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Sawflies, ‘Symphyta’. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e1168. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1168