Soloman Seal Sawfly caterpillars

My clump of Soloman Seal has been decimated by loads of tiny grey caterpillars so I've had to cut down all the stalks. Lots of the caterpillars dropped onto the ground whilst I was doing this but I think I'm right in saying they don't eat anything else?
Does anybody know what the life cycle is please?

 

I get them here every year. I put them on the bird table and the birds gobble them up. Their complete lifecycle, I don’t know about though.

 

We have the gooseberry ones and at the moment they are decimating the bushes but thankfully the fruits are still ok if not a very reduced harvest. We don't cut back the stems.
We have had them on Solomon's seal as well but again we don't cut back the stems.
Sorry don't know their life cycle.

 

Each type of Sawfly is species specific.

 

Ha, this reminds me of an episode in the wonderful Victorian Kitchen Garden series. Harry spread lime on a sheet on the ground. He then used a blank cartridge shot and the shock wave knocked them all down into the lime. As he said at the time "whoever thought of this must have been very desperate "

 

The lifecycle is similar to crane flies - eggs, then larvae [the caterpillar in this case] which do the damage, then pupae and eventually a fly. Repeat again.
Picking them off for the birds is probably the best method of disposal, if you get them quickly enough!
It's mostly cosmetic damage, and I'd expect a healthy established plant should recover.
I've never had them though, so I don't know how well, or how quickly, the recovery is in most cases.
Species specific, as already said. There are various types. I know there's a rose one and also gooseberry.

 

Thanks all, the birds down here must be very picky, they haven't touched any of the caterpillars I put out yesterday - too well fed on expensive sunflower hearts I expect!

I cut down the decimated stalks as they are up on a bank at eye level so look very unsightly. I doesn't seem to impede new growth at all, in fact I was hoping it might as the clump is beginning to make a break for freedom!
Here's hoping either the rose or gooseberry sawfly doesn't attack next.

 

I also have one on my dwarf Pinus mugo, watched them being devoured by Blue Tits the other day.

 

I have the sawfly each year and just see it as plant ‘going over’. Luckily other plants disguise the damage (from afar).