Sawfly Larva

It is amazing—hand someone a camera and they start looking more closely at their surroundings just to find subjects to photograph.  They become aware of all sorts of creatures and plants with which they’ve always shared their existence but never noticed before. 
I found this little guy crawling along our deck railing.  I’ve been unsuccessful thus far in determining his identity other than that I am fairly certain that it is a sawfly larva.  It would be easier to identify if it were crawling on one of our plants or even better if it were eating a leaf.  From what I understand, the species are fairly specific as to what plant they ingest.

It looks like a caterpillar, so at first I consulted my caterpillar field guide.  My daughter and I googled yellow-necked caterpillar (which was the closest resemblance in the field guide) and quickly realized that the yellow-necked caterpillar has stripes, not spots, and hairs which we didn’t notice at first in the field guide drawing.  So I went to my trusty www.BugGuide.net to type into the search window there hoping “yellow and black caterpillar” would bring up images of the same bug.  That is when we learned that not all caterpillars become moths or butterflies.  It most closely resembles the other sawfly larvae featured on the site, but nothing that looks like an exact match.
I’ve submitted an ID request there and hope one of their experts will be able to identify it for me.  If you ever find a bug that you’d like to know more about, I highly recommend their site.  They do have some guidelines for submitting a request, so be sure to read through them before you post a photo.

For more great animal photos, check out Camera Critters by clicking on the button below.

Update:  This is the last instar of the Dogwood Sawfly (Macremphytus tarsatus).  I hadn’t made the connection because he doesn’t look like the other caterpillars on the dogwood tree and he was up on the deck above our walk-out basement.  Thanks to Valerie for directing me to Adriondack Natural History for the ID.