Sawflies, Horntails, and Wood Wasps
Symphyta
Sawflies are the insects of the suborder Symphyta within the order Hymenoptera alongside ants, bees and wasps. The common name comes from the saw-like appearance of the ovipositor, which the females use to cut into the plants where they lay their eggs. The name is associated especially with the Tenthredinoidea, by far the largest superfamily, with about 7,000 known species; in the entire suborder, there are 8,000 described species in more than 800 genera. The suborder...
8 branches of this suborder, most-observed first
Typical Sawflies
superfamilyTenthredinoidea
Horntails and Allies
superfamilySiricoidea
Stem Sawflies and Allies
superfamilyCephoidea
Pamphilioidea
superfamilyPamphilioidea
Xiphydrioidea
superfamilyXiphydrioidea
Xyeloidea
superfamilyXyeloidea
Orussoidea
superfamilyOrussoidea
Anaxyeloidea
superfamilyAnaxyeloidea
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Symphyta in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 84643.