“I found this caterpillar crawling on this rock outside my garage”, writes this reader in her submission regarding the black and yellow creature pictured below. “I live in Central Minnesota. I haven’t been able to identify it and I’m hoping you can tell me what it is? Thank you!” To start with, we want to thank our reader right back for this absolutely incredible photo! It is photos like these that make identifying the organisms we are asked about so much easier. Besides, they make a wonderful addition to our library. And because of this, we can indeed tell our reader what this is. This is a dogwood sawfly larva.

Despite looking a whole lot like a caterpillar, dogwood sawflies are, as their name suggests, flies: not butterflies or moths. The larvae of flies are not called caterpillars, but just larvae, though they are also commonly referred to as maggots. Typically, when one says the word ‘maggot’, they think of the tiny, white critters, like the larvae of the blue bottle fly. They don’t think of these beautiful creatures. With that said, sawflies are not technically a species of fly either: they are more closely related to bees and wasps, as they are part of the same order (Hymenoptera). And in fact, just like the sawfly larva is often mistaken for a caterpillar, the adult sawfly is often mistaken for a wasp. They just can’t seem to be recognized as their own species! That said, the dogwood sawfly is not mistaken for a wasp as often, as it has a reddish color, rather than the black and yellow stripes that other species of sawflies have.

So, what are sawflies? Like we said, they are related to wasps and bees, but they do not have a stinger. Instead, they have a unique saw-like appendage which they are named after. In fact, only the female sawflies have this appendage, as it is actually their ovipositor (the organ used to lay eggs). It is shaped like a saw because a mother sawfly will quite literally saw a hole into a plant before laying her eggs inside the hole. Dogwood sawfly larvae feed on species of dogwood, which is a species of tree, and can be real pests when they infest the trees in large enough numbers. That said, they are not harmful to humans or pets, so our reader needs not worry about that.

In conclusion, the black and yellow caterpillar-like creature our reader found is a dogwood sawfly larva. These guys are really quite stunning, and are harmless. We recommend just leaving it to its devices. We hope this helps, and we wish our reader the very best!

Summary

Article Name

Yellow and Black Caterpillar on Rock is Actually a Dogwood Sawfly Larvae

Description

"I found this caterpillar crawling on this rock outside my garage", writes this reader in her submission regarding the black and yellow creature pictured below. "I live in Central Minnesota. I haven't been able to identify it and I'm hoping you can tell me what it is? Thank you!" To start with, we want to thank our reader right back for this absolutely incredible photo! It is photos like these that make identifying the organisms we are asked about so much easier. Besides, they make a wonderful addition to our library. And because of this, we can indeed tell our reader what this is. This is a dogwood sawfly larva.

Author

Worm Researcher Anton