File: <siricdae.htm> [For educational purposes
only] Glossary <Principal Natural Enemy Groups > <Citations> <Home> |
HYMENOPTERA, Siricidae (Siricoidea)
Please refer to the following links for details on this group:
Siricidae = Link 1
The wood
wasps or horntails are a group of about 105 non-social species of the
family Siricidae, of the order
Hymenoptera. They are a type of
xylophagous sawfly. This family had been thought to be the only living
representative of the superfamily Siricoidea, a group well-represented in
early Tertiary and Mesozoic times, but another family Anaxyelidae has
recently been linked to this group. The last tergite of the abdomen
has a stout, projecting spike, which gives the group its common name (the
ovipositor is usually longer and also projects posteriorly, but it is not the
source of the name). Horntails are mostly is brown, blue or black with yellow
markings, and they may often reach up to 4 cm long. The pigeon horntail,
Tremex columba, can reach up to 5 cm long (not counting the
ovipositor), which is among the longest of all Hymenoptera. Female horntails lay their eggs in
trees. The larvae bore into the wood and live in the tree for about 2 years.
They regularly migrate to just under the bark before pupation. |
References: Please
refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references may be found at: MELVYL
Library]