High consumption rate by Neodiprion sertifer?-A comment on a paper by Larsson and Tenow.

In a recently published food utilization study of larvae of the European pine sawfly, Neodiprion sertifer (Larsson and Tenow, Oecologia (Berl) 43 (1979) 157-172), it was concluded that a high consumption rate was part of a suite of presumed adaptations exhibited by these larvae for feeding on a food with a low nitrogen content. In this note it is shown that larvae of N. sertifer exhibit a relative consumption rate which is comparable to that of other sawflies and intermediate in comparison to other herbivorous insects.