Sawfly Eats Beetle
Order Hymenoptera – Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies
Family Tenthredinidae
Females of this subfamily often dine on smaller bugs in search of protein for building their eggs.
This yellow sawfly captured and devoured a small beetle in less than 13 minutes.
She left nothing but pieces of the exoskeleton scattered around, then cleaned her antennae and flew off.
Live adult sawfly photographed at West Chicago Prairie, DuPage County, Illinois. Size: 10mm.
One of the ways sawflies differ from other hymenopterans is that they do not have a narrow waist.
The “saw” in sawfly refers to the saw-edged ovipositor (below) these insects use to cut slits into foliage wherein they lay eggs.
Sawfly ovipositor, Dolerus nitens
Bees & Wasps Index | Bees & Wasps Main
Tree Encyclopedia / North American Insects & Spiders
Online since 2002
