Sirex is a genus of sawfly in the family Siricidae, the horntails or wood wasps. Their bodies are black with a dark blue or green metallic reflection with some species having reddish-brown portions.
They inject eggs with fungal endosymbionts into wood. The larvae of Sirex are unable to digest the wood on their own and rely on the fungus for nutrition, either eating the fungus or wood partially digested by the fungus. Female Sirex have a mycangium which is used to carry arthrospores of the fungus.
The genus includes economically important pests; S. noctilio, known simply as the 'Sirex woodwasp' is an invasive species, having spread widely across the world from its original range.Hurley, B. P., et al. (2007). A comparison of control results for the alien invasive woodwasp, Sirex noctilio, in the southern hemisphere. Agricultural and Forest Entomology 9(3), 159–71.
Species
Sirex abietinus Goulet, 2012 Sirex areolatus (Cresson, 1868) Sirex atricornis Kjellander, 1945 Sirex behrensii (Cresson, 1880) Sirex californicus (Ashmead, 1904) Sirex carinthiacus Konow, 1892 Sirex cinctus Drury, 1773 Sirex cyaneus Fabricius, 1781 Sirex ermak (Semenov, 1921) Sirex hispaniola Goulet, 2012 Sirex imperialis W.F.Kirby, 1882 Sirex juvencus (Linnaeus, 1758) Sirex longicauda Middlekauff, 1948 Sirex melanopoda Benson, 1965 Sirex mexicanus Smith, 2012 Sirex mongolorum (Semenov) Sirex nigricornis Fabricius, 1781 Sirex nitidus (Harris, 1841) Sirex nitobei Matsumura Sirex noctilio Fabricius, 1793 Sirex obesus Bradley, 1913 Sirex piceus G.Xiao & Wu, 1983 Sirex pygmaeus Linnaeus, 1767 Sirex sinicus Maa Sirex tianshanicus (Semenov) Sirex torvus Harris, 1779 Sirex varipes Walker, 1866 Sirex vates Mocsáry Sirex xerophilus Schiff, 2012
References