Common green-tenthredo
Tenthredo mesomela
The common green-tenthredo is a sawfly, a cousin of wasps and bees. Its body is bright apple green with a black back and head. You can spot it sitting on flat white flower heads in meadows in early summer.
Lives in
Most of Europe, in meadows, roadsides and at the edges of woods
Length
1 to 1.5 cm (0.39 to 0.59 in)
What does it eat?
The grown-ups catch small insects and also lick nectar and pollen from flowers. Its larvae come out at night to eat buttercup leaves.
How big is it?
How long is it?
🍚as long as 2.5 grains of rice in a row⚽could fly across a whole football pitch in 18 seconds⚡moves 390 times its own body length every second
How big is Common green-tenthredo compared to YOU?
Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.
How fast is it?
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
Common green-tenthredo about 21 km/h (13 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
You can see the grown-ups from May to July.
2
Its larvae are night eaters. They munch buttercup leaves while most animals sleep.
3
It has a little black spot on each wing. That spot helps experts tell it apart from a very similar green sawfly.
you asked
Most asked questions about Common green-tenthredo
?What does it eat?
Small insects, plus nectar and pollen from flowers. Its larvae eat buttercup leaves.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Tenthredo mesomela
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Tenthredinidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Tenthredinidae
- Lives on
- Europe
Where the facts come from
- Tenthredo mesomela (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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