Family: Tenthredinidae
Family common name: common sawflies
Subfamily: Blennocampinae
Tribe: Lycaotini
Genus: Lycaota Konow, 1903
Subgenera: none
The Tenthredinidae are the most species-rich family and are found throughout the world, in all continents but Antarctica. They are known as the “common sawflies.” They can generally be recognized by a cylindrical body and long, segmented antennae. Otherwise, they come in a variety of colors, sizes, and forms (Goulet 1992).
Sawflies in the subfamily Blennocampinae have a diverse set of life histories and habits. Many species are restricted to subtropical and tropical regions, but the genus is still fairly species-rich in North America. Blennocampinae includes many sawflies that feed on ornamental and forestry crops. This subfamily can be recognized by wing venation and bidentate mandibles (Smith 1969d).
Lycaota are about 6.5–7 mm in length and mostly black with dark legs. Though habits of Lycaota are not known, it’s possible that they are gall-inducers like closely-related genera Blennogeneris and European Hoplocampoides (Smith 1969d).
There are three described extant species worldwide, and all are restricted to North America (Taeger et al. 2010).
Subfamily characters
Genus characters
Lycaota can be confused with similar species in the subfamily Blennocampinae. It can be distinguished from most other genera by the complete fore wing anal cell and from similar genus Blennogeneris by usually darkened wings and black-colored legs (Goulet 1992).
none
unknown
unknown
World: This genus is known only from North America (Taeger et al. 2010).
North America: Lycaota is a western genus that occurs in California, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan (Smith 1969d).
Map data from: GBIF.org (29 October 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download Lycaota
Details about data used for maps can be found here.
Sawfly Gen
