Butternut woollyworm sawfly
This sawfly is a cousin of wasps and bees, but its babies are the real stars. They look like little caterpillars wrapped in fluffy white wool. They munch the leaves of butternut and walnut trees.
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Fun facts
The white wool on the larvae probably helps protect them from hungry enemies.
A sawfly larva has a pair of legs on every body part, while a real caterpillar has a gap with no legs.
When it is disturbed, the larva curls up into a little ball.
The mother saws into a leaf and lays 20 to 30 eggs, one at a time.
The larvae spend the winter in the soil and come out as grown-ups in spring.
Most asked questions about Butternut woollyworm sawfly
?Is the butternut woollyworm harmful?
Not to people. It only nibbles tree leaves, and the trees usually recover.
?What is the white fluff on the butternut woollyworm?
It is a woolly coat that probably helps keep enemies away.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Eriocampa juglandis
- Group
- Wasps and hornets
- Family
- Tenthredinidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Tenthredinidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Butternut woollyworm
Where the facts come from
- Eriocampa juglandis (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 Ryan Hodnett. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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