Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Cladius pectinicornis - Bristly Roseslug Sawfly

hungry caterpillar - Cladius pectinicornis Sawfly larvae on rose bush in December - Cladius pectinicornis sawfly - Cladius pectinicornis - female Small Sawfly - Cladius pectinicornis - male Sawfly larva on rose leaf - Cladius pectinicornis Cladius difformis - Cladius pectinicornis Sawfly? - Cladius pectinicornis Cladius difformis, Bristly Roseslug Sawfly - Cladius pectinicornis
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon ("Symphyta" - Sawflies, Horntails, and Wood Wasps)
Family Tenthredinidae (Common Sawflies)
Subfamily Nematinae
Tribe Cladiini
Genus Cladius
Species pectinicornis (Bristly Roseslug Sawfly)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cladius difformis (Panzer, 1799) is often considered as synonymous to Cladius pectinicornis (Geoffroy 1785)(1). While Dr. D.R. Smith maintains that the two are distinct species (with C. pectinicornis being strictly Palaearctic and C. difformis found in the Nearctic), subsequent literature has found no morphological nor genetic rationale to separate the two.
Explanation of Names
Cladius pectinicornis (Geoffroy, 1785)
Size
5-7 mm(2)
Identification

"Few sawflies have hairs such as this. Rather long hairs on body, prolegs on abdominal segments 2-7 and 10, and feeding on rose pretty well narrows this down to the bristly roseslug." --Dr. Smith's comments
Range
Native to the Palaearctic; probably introduced in North America(2)
Food
Larvae feed on rose leaves, raspberry and strawberry; skeletonizing at first and eating all the leaf tissues but the veins when they get bigger.
Life Cycle
They go through multiple generations a year, if the weather stays warm.
Remarks
may damage raspberry and strawberry(2)
Internet References
Fact sheet [Web Archive] (Rosetta 2009)(3)