🚨 ARTHROPOD OF THE DAY 🚨

The Australian steel-blue sawfly Perga affinis are often known as 'spitfires'. Sawfly larvae can grow to 7cm long and forage nocturnally in Australian Eucalyptus trees, forming large groups that can strip all of the leaves from a tree in a few days.

Sawfly societies operate democratically, with leaders and followers co-operating to decide on group movements. Sawflies live in social groups that can have hundreds of individuals and they stay together for their seven-month larval stage.