Tenthredinidae

Tenthredinidae
Female Tenthredopsis sordida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Suborder:	Symphyta
Superfamily:	Tenthredinoidea
Family:	Tenthredinidae
Subfamilies
Allantinae Blennocampinae Heterarthrinae Nematinae Selandriinae - (includes Dolerinae) Susaninae Tenthredininae

The Tenthredinidae is the largest family of sawflies, with well over 6000 species worldwide. Larvae are typically herbivores and feed on the foliage of trees and shrubs, with occasional exceptions that are leaf miners, stem borers, or gall makers. The larvae of externally feeding species resemble small caterpillars. They go through complete metamorphosis.

The family has no easily seen diagnostic features, though the combination of 5-9 antennal flagellomeres plus a clear separation of the first abdominal tergum from the metapleuron can reliably separate them. These sawflies are often black or brown, and from 3-20 mm long. Like other sawflies they lack the slender "wasp-waist," or petiole, between the thorax and abdomen, characteristic of many Hymenopterans . The mesosoma (or thorax) and the metasoma (abdomen) are instead broadly joined. The Tenthredinidae are also often somewhat dorso-ventrally flattened which will distinguish them at least from the slender Cephids (which, together with the common sawflies comprise many of the Nearctic species of Symphyta).

Females use their sawlike ovipositor to cut slits through barks of twigs, into which translucent eggs are wedged, which damages the trees. They are common in meadows, and in forest glades near rapid streams. Adults eat little, while larvae feed on foliage of streamside trees and shrubs, especially willow.

A number of species and genera have been described from the fossil record such as Eriocampa tulameenensis and Pseudosiobla campbelli of British Columbia.

External links

• Hymis de Image gallery