Sawflies are a unique group of wasp-like herbivorous insects, many of which are economic pests in North America. They have a variety of plant-feeding behaviors; they feed on leaves both externally and as leaf-miners and bore into stems of grasses, shrubs, and trees. Sawfly GenUS is an interactive identification tool for all sawfly genera found in the United States and Canada. This tool is intended to help recognize exotic sawfly introductions and provide access to general information on affected plants, range, and diversity of these insects. This tool should be useful for port identifiers and screeners, provincial and state departments of agriculture, university extension professionals, and any non-expert with an interest in sawflies!
If this is your first visit to Sawfly GenUS, please review how to use this tool to learn about the many uses of this tool and how to access the features available. The tool includes instructions for pinning specimens, how to differentiate sawflies from non-sawflies, and more.
Fact sheets are searchable from any page in the tool; for example, a user can search for the plant (scientific or common name) where they discovered their specimen, and find all the known North American sawfly genera associated with that plant.
The key to sawfly genera of North America can be used to identify an unknown sawfly specimen from the U.S. or Canada to genus. The interactive key features photographs of diagnostic characters and examples of male and female forms of each genus.
Authors: Q. Baine, C. Looney, S.K. Monckton, D.R. Smith, N.M. Schiff, H. Goulet, A.J. Redford
Content last updated April 2022
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