Superfamily: Cephoidea
Family: Cephidae
Family Common Name: stem sawflies
Subfamilies: Athetocephinae, Australcephinae, Cephinae
The family Cephidae are known as the stem sawflies because of their larval habit of boring into stems of various plants (Smith and Middlekauff 1987). They are easily recognized by slender, elongated bodies and missing cenchri (Middlekauff 1969). This family includes some economic significant pests of wheat crops (Smith and Middlekauff 1987).
Cephidae includes 24 genera and 165 species worldwide. About 6 genera and 16 species are Nearctic in distribution (Taeger et al. 2018).
Cephidae can be distinguished from other families by the lack of cenchri, lack of cornus, and long cylindrical body (Goulet 1992).
In North America, Cephidae feeds on species in the families Poaceae, Rosaceae and Adoxaceae (Goulet 1992).
Cephidae sawflies bore into stems of the host plant, creating galleries in which they usually pupate. The sawflies of the subfamily Cephinae are often pests because they girdle stems of economically important grass crops, i.e. wheat, barley (Smith and Middlekauff 1987).
World: This family is Holarctic, known from North America, Europe and Asia (Taeger et al. 2010). Two species occur in Madagascar (Middlekauff 1969).
North America: Cephidae is most common in the northeast United States and the Great Lakes region, though species occur throughout the United States and most of Canada (Middlekauff 1969, Goulet 1992).
Sawfly Gen
