Subject: Never seen one like this.
Location: Mid Michigan USA
February 16, 2014 10:43 am
I have been finding these little bugs in our house. Only find one or two a week. I live in mid-michigan he have had a long hard winter. Not sure where the bugs are coming from. Maybe a table decoration that was made out of birch tree limbs. Just wondering what kind of big this is. It’s about the size of a dime In length.
Signature: Thank you, Chris
Hi Chris,
We believe this is a Sawfly, a group of insects classified with bees, wasps and ants in the order Hymenoptera. It shares some physical similarities to the Stem Sawfly in the genus Janus that is pictured on BugGuide. We will try to contact Eric Eaton to see if he shares our opinion.
Eric Eaton provides an identification
Daniel:
This is something much more interesting than a sawfly, but it is *related* to sawflies: a xiphydriid wood wasp, no doubt this birch-boring species:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/310291
No records on Bugguide for Michigan yet, so would be nice to have Chris post this great image there.
Eric
Xiphydria mellipes. Family Xiphydriidae host is paper birch
Thanks Nathan,
Eric Eaton wrote back and also provided us with the information. We have updated the posting.