Megaxyela

Larvae can be distinguished by their solitary habit and distinctive resting posture curled around the central leaf vein at leaflet apices, which resembles bird droppings. Adults are large-bodied sawflies within the archaic family Xyelidae. Species-level identification requires examination of morphological characters or DNA barcoding using COI sequences.

Associated with Juglandaceae host trees; larvae feed externally on leaves.

Eastern Nearctic (eastern USA including West Virginia) and southeastern East Asia (China: Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangsu, Hubei, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Tibet; South Korea: Kangwon-do; Russia: Primorskiy Kray; Japan: Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku). Fossil species from Colorado, USA and Shandong, China.

Larvae are external leaf-feeders on Juglandaceae; specific host associations include Juglans ailanthifolia for M. togashii.

• Juglans ailanthifolia - larval hostfor M. togashii

Univoltine; larval feeding period extremely brief (nine days observed in one rearing experiment of M. togashii). Prepupa overwinters in an earthen cell constructed solely from soil, lacking parchment-like lining or fiber content.

Larvae are solitary. Resting larvae adopt a curled posture around the central leaf vein at leaflet apices, which provides apparent visual mimicry of bird excrement.

• XyelaBoth are genera in Xyelidae; Megaxyela distinguished by larger body size and different host associations with Juglandaceae versus Xyela on conifers.
• MacroxyelaBoth are Xyelidae genera with large body size; Megaxyela distinguished by geographic distribution and host plant family (Juglandaceae).

• Xyelidae
• sawfly
• Juglandaceae
• univoltine
• leaf miner
• fossil

• BugGuide
• Wikipedia
• GBIF taxonomy match
• iNaturalist taxon
• NCBI Taxonomy
• Big and beautiful: the Megaxyela species (Hymenoptera, Xyelidae) of East Asia and North America
• Bird droppings on chestnut leaves or sawfly larvae: DNA barcodes verify the occurrence of the archaic Megaxyela togashii (Hymenoptera, Xyelidae) in Hokkaido, Japan