sawfly
noun
Forms sawflies
- noun Any of various flying insects of the suborder Symphyta, within the order Hymenoptera, whose ovipositor is long and often serrated and is used to cut into plants to lay eggs.
Etymology
From saw + fly.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Any one of numerous species of hymenopterous insects belonging to the family Tenthredinidæ. The female usually has an ovipositor containing a pair of sawlike organs with which she makes incisions in the leaves or stems of plants in which to lay the eggs. The larvæ resemble those of Lepidoptera.
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sawfly”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details