Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Sawfly

NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH! Not quite sure just what I'm looking at here, lol, other than that one insect came off better than the other! When I took the photo, I thought I was looking at a pair of these red insects mating and then, when I saw the photo enlarged on my computer, felt a little sick, ha. Taken on a day trip to Bow Valley Provincial Park on 18 June, when it rained pretty much the whole day while we walked round Middle Lake, then to Many Springs, and round Many Springs and back to the cars. The few minutes before we reached the cars, the rain stopped and the sky brightened somewhat. So, we drove down to the river and went for just a short, slow-paced walk through the trees along the edge of the river, where we found these insects, that I haven't yet identified.

We saw this little guy on a botanizing day on Raymond Nadeau's ranchland, west of Head-smashed-in Buffalo Jump, way down south towards the US/Canada border just over a month ago. I still haven't been able to find it on Google - if I ever get time, I need to post it on one of the Bug websites. It was such a beautiful colour. Later: many thanks to Dr. Ted Pike (Calgary) for the ID - a Sawfly larva. "Sawflies are a relative of bees and wasps. There are three or four families of these things which feed on leaves just like this one. I can't tell you more without an adult specimen to key out.". ID much appreciated. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawfly

This Sawfly was the first one I had ever seen or at least noticed. It landed on a friend's litter-stick (i.e. for picking up garbage in the parks).